"It's a Bird" ... "It's a Plane" ... No, It's a Transportation Problem!

Thought Provoking Questions

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Thought Provoking Questions
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A detailed plan of the timing, instructional strategies, probing questions and assessment strategies can be downloaded (Word version | PDF version).  Comments about selected questions on the instructional plan appear below.
 
 
Question/Topic Comments
What about the data eliminates a particular mode of transportation? The most significant item is that the object stops and starts during the trip several times.  There are many other items like the length of the trip, the time of day of the trip, etc.
What kinds of information do we need in order to better determine the modes of transportation? Velocity and acceleration data on various modes of transportation.
What are reliable source of information about velocity and acceleration of different mode of transportation? Students need to understand that there are reliable and unreliable sources on the web.  Once a students finds information about a particular mode, they need to ask themselves if the information is realistic based on their experience.
What in the data will not be able to be analyzed by the spreadsheet?  How are you going to deal with it? The most significant item is the stop/go.  Obviously they will not graph or will graph as zeros. One way to deal with the stop and go data it to assume it happens midway between the two positions.  While this may not be exactly correct, it is reasonable estimation.  Students may come up with other methods for dealing with the stop/go that would be equally correct.
Instantaneous verses average values for velocity and acceleration Average velocity and average acceleration equations are used thought out this module.  The students need to understand that the average over a short period of time are an approximation of instantaneous and for the purposes of this module can be used for instantaneous values. 
What would you look for in a model to make sure that there was a good representation of the data/problem? Students should be matching not only velocity data but also acceleration data to select their mode of transportation.  Students should also be taking in to account the length of the trip, that the object stops and starts, and the time of day.