Activities and resources
Students are enrolled into the Google classroom where learning activities are posted. Skills Tasks, Slides and Practical Investigations for Year 11 Physics (Modules 1-4) are available for students Home page at https://sites.google.com/wccs.nsw.edu.au/wccsphysics/home.
1. What is force?
Students engage by watching Nick Maddison breaking his bat (Slide 2).
Students identify examples of contact forces and forces that act at a distance (Slide 5).
Students discuss: What is an applied force? (Slide 6)
2. Newton’s Laws of Motion
Students explain dynamics and Newton’s first law of motion. They watch and listen to DIY Accelerometer (0:28) and describe the motion (Slide 8).
Students explain inertia using real world examples (Slide 10). Students review and give examples of applied forces and normal forces. Discuss "Why we need physics!" then watch "42 Road Construction Fails" (5:35) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODelzfAmauA.
Students explain net external force on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration, and identify examples where this is not true for all situations, e.g. a rocket that expels combustion products, reducing its mass, or an object moving at velocity close to the speed of light (Slide 12).
Students explain properties of forces and Newton’s third law of motion (Slide 11).
Students identify force pairs in Worked Example 1 (Slide 15).
Students calculate the force required to accelerate an object in Worked Example 2 (Slide 16).
Students complete Exercise Set 1 - Problems using Newton's Laws.
Students complete Exercise Set 2 - Questions about Forces and Fields.
Students go to the Guided Reading section at the bottom of the page to explore the life and scientific discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton and "Physics Problems": https://sites.google.com/wccs.nsw.edu.au/wccsphysics/module-2-dynamics/inquiry-questions
Extension for advanced students: Students who have completed all Skills Tasks may attempt some additional Advanced Questions by reading and completing "Further Application of Newton's Laws: Friction, Drag and Elasticity".
Depth Study 1: The Physics of Skydiving
Students are required to analyse an experiment that investigates the physics of skydiving, reporting on the effect of surface area and mass on terminal velocity. This will require students to calculate their own terminal velocity, then compare their result with provided experimental data. The final scientific report submission is the assessable component of this depth study.
Start date is Wed 15 March and due date is Wed 5 April 2023.
Students spend 7 periods of class time (over 6 hours) working on this task. It is the first of two Depth Studies in Year 11.
Pearson Practical Activity 2.1 – Acceleration down an incline; To study the effect of the angle of an incline on the acceleration of an object.
Pearson Practical Activity 2.3: Newton’s second law, part 2; To verify Newton’s second law.
Depth Study 2: Investigating Dynamics
Students are given the Notification on Google classroom. To begin this Depth Study, they are to start a new Google doc and write up research. They need to ensure they keep an accurate bibliography of valid, reliable sources, formatted using EasyBib.
Depth Study starts in Week 3 with Collection of Practical Investigation data over a double period. The due date is Wed 10/5/2023.
Students spend 10 periods of class time (over 9 hours) working on this task. It is the second of two Depth Studies in Year 11. See the Notification on Google classroom for details.
3. Practical Investigation 1: Motion of objects on inclined planes
Aim: To find the resultant force acting on a roller along an inclined plane from the force due to gravity and the normal force, and to study its relationship with the angle of inclination, θ.
Students use the resource "Forces" consisting of seven slides with diagrams, written explanation and voice-over to understand what forces are and what they can do. There is a two-question quiz and a summary slide.
Students demonstrate understanding and evaluate their skills by completing Skills Task 2 - Describing forces and fields.
4. Net force
Students watch Lake Como - Funicular Railway Timelapse (0:22) found .
Students compare Como funicular to an Atwood's machine. They identify forces that act via a field, e.g. a gravitational field.
Students try Rocket Sledder and complete the Exercise.
Students explain the concept of net force. Students demonstrate a tug-of-war and describe the forces involved.
Specific Adjustments for NCCD: Support strategies for students who require support include using Simple resources.
Students complete Exercise Set 3 - Net force and equilibrium, Exercise Set 4 - Vector addition and Exercise Set 5 - Components of vectors.
Students complete Skills Task 3 and gain peer feedback to evaluate their progress.
5. Force Vectors
Students review Atwood machine as a way of balancing forces.
Ask: What are the forces acting on a cup? Students think, pair and share.
Students analyse vectors by resolving components in Worked Examples 3-6 (Slides 17-20).
Students complete Exercise Set 6 - Vector problems.
Students use peer checking for Exercise Set 6 and compare with the solutions posted online.
Activities and resources
6. Friction
Ask: How the motion of objects be explained and analysed? This is the second investigation question for this module.
Students explore how two masses can balance on a frictionless pulley wheel. Then explore what happens when the forces are not balanced. They may do this pairs or by teacher-led demonstration.
Use the PPt slides to guide students through Worked Examples: 7 - Atwood's machine (as an example of an "everyday situation"); 8 - friction force; 9 - three-way tug-of-war (Slides 21-25).
Students complete Exercise Set 7 - Newton and friction.
Students use peer checking for Exercise Set 7 and compare with the solutions posted online.
Students review Formulae already learned using pair check or Quizlet. Note: Aussies say "formulas", but NESA uses the older English "formulae".
Pearson Practical Activity 2.4 – Energy, work, power; To investigate the relationship between the net force applied to an object over a distance and the resulting change in the object’s kinetic energy, using an Excel spreadsheet.
Activities and resources
7. Uniformly accelerated motion
A dynamics trolley is shown to students and they are given the opportunity to hold it, identify parts, learn instructions for safe use and explain why they are used in Physics.
Students work in groups to investigate the acceleration of a dynamics trolley by completing Practical Investigation 2 - Newton’s Second Law of Motion.
Students complete the analysis individually, explaining why the velocity increased at a uniform rate, identifying variables and deriving Newton's Second Law of motion. Students use Newton’s Second Law of Motion, to determine the fundamental units of force.
Students explore three-way tug-o-war and calculate the net force in Worked Example 9 (Slides 26-27).
Students complete Exercise Set 8 - Acceleration.
Students evaluate how the investigation could be improved and write this as part of their submission. Students review key formulae covered so far.
Extension for advanced students: Students who have completed all Skills Tasks may attempt some additional Advanced Questions by completing "Dynamics-Ramps and Inclines"
Activities and resources
8. Work and energy
Students discuss a picture of Australia’s Nicholas Kay shoots against New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games; relating all the forces involved (Dynamics Pt ii Slide 1).
Students explore the concept of Friction Forces (Slide 4). They discover, by questioning, that friction plays an important role in nearly all applications of Newton’s laws. By using example, students explore three major categories of friction forces:
1. Viscous friction forces occur when objects move through fluids, e.g. a car experiences drag caused by the friction force of air.
2. Rolling friction forces are caused by the deformation of a wheel as it rolls and by attraction of particles between the wheel and the surface.
3. Sliding friction forces occur when the two surfaces in contact with each other oppose the motion.
Students explore the concepts of Drag or viscous friction drag (or viscous friction). They describe details, such as, for a swimmer moving at constant speed through the water the thrust force is equal to the drag force. The drag force is created by the motion of the swimmer through the water.
This force resists the motion of the swimmer through the water. A drag force exists any time an object moves through a fluid, such as air or water. The faster an object moves through a fluid the greater the drag force.
Students explain that the drag experienced by a swimmer swimming is caused by (Slide 5):
(1) Pressure drag (form drag)
(2) Skin Friction drag
(3) Wave drag
Students explain various situations where friction, forces and work are involved, such as: push against a wall; walk a 20 km walking race; slam dunk a basket; swim 100 m freestyle (Slide 6).
Students go through Worked Example 10 - Coefficient of Friction and explain the solution to a problem of a mass on a slope with friction using a free body diagram (Slides 7-8).
Students go through Worked Examples 11, 12 and 13 - Work and are able to explain the solution to a problem of work of horizontal motion (Slides 9-11).
Students elaborate by deriving the formula for Kinetic Energy from definitions (work-energy theorem).
Students go through Worked Example 14 - Kinetic Energy and are able to calculate the solution to a problem concerning friction and work.
Students go through Worked Example 15 - Kinetic Energy and are able to calculate the solution to a problem concerning velocity and work.
Students complete Exercise Set 9 - Conservation of energy.
Students use peer checking for Exercise Set 9 and compare with the solutions posted online.
Activities and resources
9. Power
Students are questioned about their understanding of power in various contexts.
Students work in groups to explore and analyse qualitatively and quantitatively the concept of average power by completing Practical Investigation 3 - Average Power.
Students work individually to explain how values for work done compare with the change in potential energy.
Students elaborate on the concept of average power by predicting what would happen to the average power if it took longer to pull the trolley up the ramp (assuming the same speed each time)?
Students calculate the power of a crane’s motor (Dynamics Pt iii Slide 17).
Students complete Exercise Set 10 - Average power.
Students use peer checking for Exercise Set 10 and compare with the solutions posted online.
Activities and resources
10. Collisions
Ask: How is the motion of objects in a simple system dependent on the interaction between the objects? This is the third investigation question for this module.
Students conduct an investigation to describe and analyse one-dimensional (collinear) and two-dimensional interactions of objects in simple closed systems by completing Practical Investigation 4 - Simple closed systems.
Students complete Exercise Set 13 – Impulse, posted on Google Classroom.
Dynamics slides are posted on Google Classroom for students to access and review the learning of content.
Activities and resources
11. Conservation of momentum
Students discuss the picture of ANTARES 10MV tandem accelerator, http://www.ansto.gov.au/ResearchHub/OurResearch/environmentresearch/Facilities/ANTARES/index.htm.
Students watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUKRmfeVXnc to see how coyote deals with momentum.
Students are given a problem for diversion using geometry that seems simple, but requires problem-solving skills to find the value of x.
Students explore the concepts of Momentum and Impulse.
Students answer:
1. How difficult is it to stop a moving object?
2. How difficult is it to make a stationary object move?
Students discover that the answer to both of these questions depends on two physical characteristics of the object:
- the mass of the object (m),
- how fast the object was moving, or how fast you want it to move (v).
Students are able to explain "The product of these two quantities is called momentum." Momentum is given by: . Momentum is a vector quantity. Momentum has S.I. units of measurement kg m s-1.
Students analyse quantitatively and predict, using the law of conservation of momentum and, where appropriate, conservation of kinetic energy, the results of interactions in elastic collisions.
Students are able to explain various forms of notation used in Physics problems, e.g. NESA uses Σ 1/2 mv ⃗before2; other texts do not use arrows. The important thing is to understand conservation of momentum (the sum of momentum before equals the sum of momentum after). Students are strongly advised to learn instead.
Activities and resources
11. Force vs. time graphs
Students calculate the impulse of a golf ball using a graph of F vs t in Worked Example 19 (Slide 16).
Students complete Exercise Set 12 - Force vs time graphs.
Students use peer checking for Exercise Set 12 and compare with the solutions posted online.
Activities and resources
11. Impulse
Students view "Looney Tunes | Train Crash | Boomerang UK" (1:40) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUKRmfeVXnc.
Students view "The Moment of Impact. An Inside Look at Titleist Golf Ball R&D" (3:50) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TA1s1oNpbk.
Students explore the question: How is the motion of objects in a simple system dependent on the interaction between the objects?
Students watch Inelastic and Elastic Collisions: What are they? (4:24), Moments You Wouldn't Believe (10:16) and Crazy Snooker Shots (3:14) (Slide 8).
Students derive the Impulse-Momentum Equation.
Students explain Worked Example 16 - Impulse using a graph, Worked Example 17 - Impulse concerning a collision (Slides 9-11).
Students complete Exercise Set 13 - Impulse.
Students use peer checking for Exercise Set 13 and compare with the solutions posted online.
Activities and resources
12. Collisions in 2D
Students watch “2D momentum example - A level Physics” (3:40) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLQrStX1oqc.
Brainstorm: What are some other examples of 2D collisions? Share ideas.
Students explore and analyse interactions in an inelastic collision, and compare these results to an elastic collision by completing Practical Investigation 4 - Collisions.
Worked Example 18 - Inelastic Collision about momentum (Slides 13-14). Also, if not done prior, Worked Example 19 - Elastic Collision about protons colliding, Worked Example 20 - Collisions in 2D using billiard balls.
Students complete Exercise Set 14 - Elastic and inelastic collisions.
Students use peer checking for Exercise Set 14 and compare with the solutions posted online.