Instructional Software

Lesson Idea Name: Motion Graphing Simulation

Content Area: Physics
Grade Level(s): High School

Content Standard Addressed:

SP1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the relationship between distance, displacement,
speed, velocity, and acceleration as functions of time.
Technology Standard Addressed:
ISTE 1 Empowered Learner

Selected Technology Tool:

Graphing simulator
URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable):
http://graphsandtracks.com/#/challenges/practice
Type of Instructional Software:
☐ Drill and Practice ☐ Tutorial ☒ Simulation ☐ Instructional Game ☐ e-books/e-references

Features of this software (check all that apply):

☒ Assessment Monitoring/Reporting
☒ Allows teacher to create customized lessons for students
☐ Multi-user or collaborative functions with others in the class
☐ Multi-user or collaborative with others outside the class
☒ Accessible to students beyond the school day
☐ Accessible via mobile devices
☐ Multiple languages
☒ Safety, security and/or privacy features

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☐ Remembering ☐ Understanding ☐ Applying ☒ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☐ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☐ Level 2: Exploration ☒ Level 3: Infusion ☐ Level 4: Integration
☐ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): When looking at this assignment in the context of UDL I feel as though
it is plane to see that the first section, the “what” of learning being evident here. The students will not only be
able to learn the material in a more hands on way, but they also may all have different learning experiences
depending on their outcome. This lesson will allow students to design and set up their simulation in the best
way they see to find the relationships between the ideas mentioned in the standard. I also believe in the
same vain that this touches on the ideas of the “why” of learning as well because through their experiment
they will start to understand the meaning of the relationships. They will also be prompted to provide an
example of where this knowledge they gained from analyzing the simulation could be used in a real-world
scenario.
Lesson idea implementation: This simulation will start off with a brief introduction which would be a
refresher for the class on the basic ideas of speed, acceleration, time, distance, displacement, and velocity.
Once that is done the students will be given 5-10 minutes to essentially familiarize themselves with the

Spring 2018_SJB
 Instructional Software
simulation software by either going through the tutorial or simply messing with the functions to understand
what they do. After that the students will be tasked with coming up with an experiment which would show
the relationship between all the words covered in the beginning of class. The only stipulation given would be
that they must collect some sort of data and use that for their argument about the relations. Students would
be grouped together in groups of 2-3 for this experiment as well. During this simulation I would have students
collecting data and then writing on their paper their own thoughts about the relationship and this would be
collected for a grade. If we are running on a block schedule this would take a large portion of the class time
and any time remaining would be used to bring the students back together and discuss their results. When
discussing their results, I would have a few groups come together to discuss their thoughts and then come up
with a collective idea as to how each item is related to time.

Reflective Practice: I think one way to extend this lesson would then be to take the lesson out into the world
and measure our simulation in a real-world environment. The best way I can think to do this would be on a
roller coaster at an amusement park. With how advanced phones are now I believe we could download an
app that could measure our position and velocity while riding the ride. After doing so we could take the
collected data and plug the information into something like an excel sheet and actually see graphs similar to
those we saw in the simulation done in class.

Spring 2018_SJB