Part A - Practical

In the activity below, the idea is to try and reproduce the journeys that were made by the person who recorded these journeys in the first place. The graphs describe the position of a person as time passes. The journeys are made over a few seconds and a few metres.

With Motion Sensors

If you have Vernier Motion Sensor then you will be able to have fun seeing how your journeys compare (see Teacher notes). These are really easy to set up. Just plug the motion sensor into the USB port of your laptop and off you go

• You can find some simple instructions about using the Motion sensor
• Ignore the squiggles (they are often due to noise interference).
• Copy and paste your graphs underneath your teacher’s graphs then write a description of the journeys giving details of any important details. An editable version of the worksheet is provided here.

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Without Motion Sensors

It is possible to complete the practical part of this activity without the motion sensors. Here are a few suggestions of how this might work.

1. At the front of the class, the teacher or a student volunteer produces a journey that they think reproduces one of the journeys. The students then decide which of the graphs best represents this journey.
2. As above, but in pairs.
3. A graph is displayed on a screen at the front of the class. A volunteer is asked to try and reproduce the journey. Students discuss whether the journey represents that of the graph. The journey could then be refined.
4. Students could work in pairs to play a guessing game. Player 1 looks at a graph then makes a journey. Player 2 draws a graph of the journey. They discuss whether their graphs match up.