The Need for Speed!

Day 1: The lesson will start with a KWL chart of what the students know about speed and what they want to know about speed. We will then discuss this information as an entire class. Next the will be broken up into groups of 3. I will give each group the equation Speed=Distance/Time. They will work with this equation and come up with ideas of how we can find speed.

Each group with be given a Flip Camera. We will go outside with meter sticks and the measuring wheels. Each group will have a worksheet where they will write down the distances they decide on for each race. They will complete 3 different races. They get to decide how they do each race (walk, run, hop, jump, crawl, etc.) and the distance for each race and record this on their worksheet.

They will use the flip cam to record each group member doing each race- for a total of 9 different trials. For each trial, there will be a "runner" a "videographer" and a "recorder." The runner will be completing the race, the videographer will be using the flip cam to tape the race, and the recorder will be writing down the information (whether it's race 1-9 and where the video is on the camera i.e. 1:34).

After all the trials are completed we will come back inside and fill in "L" of the KWL chart, or, what they learned.

Day 2: We will review that Speed=Distance/Time and then introduce that Distance= Speed x Time and Time= Distance/Speed as well. We will also discuss that the lower the number of Speed the faster it is. Also introduce Average Speed.

They will get back into their groups with their flip cams and figure out the time it took for each trial and record it on their worksheet. They will then be able to figure out the speed of each trial by dividing the distance they used by the time the trial took. They will then need to answer the following questions:

Which race had the fastest speed (run, walk, hop etc?)
Which trial had the fastest speed (ie Trial 3, Mariela- run)
Who had the fastest average speed?
What was the average speed of each race?
What was the average speed of all of your trials?

We will then come back as a whole group and compile a data table of the average speeds for each group to figure out which group was the fastest. We will then create graphs based on running races, vs. walking races. Short distances vs. long distances.

After all of the graphs are completed we will show the fastest race and discuss the distance of the race the type of race etc.

We will then do word problems based on the races the students ran to find speed, distance, or time. We will first show the clip. First I will do an example of one. Then we will do a few together, then they will work individually on problems. Each time we will show the video clip first then solve the world problem.
i.e. In Jocelin's 3rd race she ran a distance of 50m and her speed was 5 m/s how long did she run? Time= _______?