Below you will find example curriculum tasks for a high school introductory kinematics unit. Our curriculum tasks are differentiated into Inquiry, Instructional, Model Building and Challenges based on objectives and difficulties. In addition, we embed formative assessments throughout to measure STEM and CT learning gains.

Curriculum Overview

Non-profit organizations are limited in their ability to provide medical assistance to persons in remote areas due to financial constraints. In this scenario, we need to transport medicine to a remote tribe in the Amazon rainforest. Currently, the needed medicine is in the port city of Fortaleza, the capital of the Brazilian state of Ceara. In order to conserve cost, the medicine will first be driven to Macapa. It will then take a boat to Manaus, where it will then be flown by drone over the tribe’s location and safely dropped.

Module One: 1D Velocity

For the first part of the journey, students are responsible for modeling the velocity, acceleration, and position of your medical truck accurately as it travels to the Amazon River. To begin, students complete inquiry and instructional tasks (including the Sloth instructional task, below) in order to focus their learning on needed kinematics and CT concepts and practices needed for the more difficult modeling tasks.

Example 1D Kinematics Tasks:

Try it for yourself! Using the environment provided below, program the sloth to change its position with a velocity of 1 m/s. The program should update the sloth’s position at 1 second intervals. Prompts have been provided in the build environment!

Module Two: 2D Velocity

The second part of our journey requires us to use a boat to deliver the medicine to the airstrip. The boat will travel with and against the river's current and you will be required to cross the river throughout this journey. Let's take a look at the programming concepts involved!

Example 2D Velocity Tasks:

Module Three: 2D Acceleration (with Gravity)

The medicine is now ready for the final air transport to the Amazonian tribe. As we prepare to program Rey to make the final delivery, let’s take a look at a few physics concepts Rey needs to take into account in order to accurately delivery the package!

Example 2D Acceleration Tasks:

Try out a challenge for yourself! Using the environment provided below, program the drone and both packages, so that package 1 lands at target 1 and package 2 lands on the tower given the instructions provided.

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