home


 * This project was designed by Kathleen Djupman (student teacher) and Rosalind Echols (cooperating teacher) to encompass the basics of kinematics under the guise of principles of safe driving that one might learn in Driver's Education.

In keeping with Science Leadership Academy's Core Values, this project will promote Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation, and Reflection in the following ways:**

__Inquiry:__ - Students will raise questions about driving and how to describe and interpret what they observe. - Through experiments and investigation, students will develop the mathematical relationships between displacement, velocity, and acceleration. - Misconceptions about the meaning and uses of the various representations of motion will be identified and addressed through student problem solving and discussion

__Research:__ - Students will research statistics about safe driving, including data regarding accidents, traffic light violations, and average cost of infractions such as speeding and tailgating.

__Collaboration:__ - The project and laboratory investigations are group activities designed with principles of cooperative learning. Students will work together to achieve their goals and complete their investigations. - Positive interdependence between group members will be fostered through the use of group contracts, individual and peer evaluation, and class discussion of strategies for working effectively with a range of skill and motivation levels.

__Presentation:__ - Students will design a public website demonstrating their analysis of the scenarios targeted at other teenagers - Students will present their final product to their teachers and to a representative from the insurance field. They will be evaluated on the physics of their project. Additionally, students will receive feedback regarding their creativity and the incorporation of science and safety into their work.

__Reflection:__ - Reflection will be a focus throughout the unit. This includes reflection on group work, laboratory experiments, quizzes, and their final project.

3.1.12.B: Apply concepts of models as a method to predict and understand science and technology. 3.1.12.E: Evaluate change in nature, physical systems and man made systems. 3.2.12.A: Evaluate the nature of scientific and technological knowledge. 3.2.12.B: Evaluate experimental information for appropriateness and adherence to relevant science processes. 3.2.12.C: Apply the elements of scientific inquiry to solve multi-step problems. 3.4.12.C.3: Analyze the principles of translational motion, velocity and acceleration as they relate to free fall and projectile motion. 3.4.12.C.6: Describe inertia, motion, equilibrium, and action/reaction concepts through words, models and mathematical symbols.
 * This project addresses the following Pennsylvania State Science Standards:**