PD Videos: Mechanics
These videos show various ideas for teaching mechanics in A level Mathematics/Further Mathematics lessons. Each video is approximately five minutes in length and demonstrates a different aspect of teaching mechanics.
The videos were filmed at Ivybridge Community College in March 2017.
Questions for reflection:
- What are the key misconceptions that students might have?
- How can graphical representations help to develop students’ understanding?
- How can you use dynamic graphing software to deepen understanding of kinematics?
Related resources:
Lesson plan and resources
Presentation Interactive modelling resources
Questions for reflection:
- Why might it be advantageous to run a lesson like this early on in a mechanics course?
- What simple experiments can be done in a classroom to help students ‘feel’ forces?
- How can you guide your students towards discussing their intrinsic understanding of forces in a more mathematical way?
Related resources:
Questions for reflection:
- To what extent can conceptual understanding be developed before the introduction of numbers and equations?
- What key misconceptions can be dispelled through practical work?
- How do you account for varying levels of student experience/confidence when setting up this sort of activity?
Related resources:
Lesson plan Presentation Sample Integral resources for Mechanics
Questions for reflection:
- What are the main types of forces students need to be able to identify?
- Which scenarios often lead to errors in force diagrams, and how can you anticipate and correct these?
- What questioning strategies are useful for this sort of task?
Related resources:
Questions for reflection:
- How can a student’s general understanding of mechanics benefit from modelling a real problem?
- How can you structure a modelling task to encourage the ‘simplify and then refine’ approach?
- What questioning strategies are required to guide students in the right direction?
Related resources:
Lesson plan and activities Presentation Engineering resources