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Description
This activity provides students with an opportunity to go outdoors and collect primary data around motion and its applications. Students will record the time required for a vehicle to drive through the drop-off area of a school, which will lead to discussions about commuting, vehicle emissions and fuel efficiency. The learning activity explores CO2 emissions and vehicle efficiency. In small groups, students will discuss ways to make inefficient vehicles more efficient. They will share their ideas with the class and then work together to create a series of recommendations for manufactures.
General Assessment
What skills does this resource explicitly teach?
Students engage in data collection and analysis.
Strengths
The student study of vehicle efficiency as outlined is focused, limited in its goals and doable. The study is supported by a related activity designed to have students measure commuting distances and to compare highway and city driving.
Recommendation of how and where to use it
The resource is intended to support the study of motion and its application within the grade 12 Physics curriculum. The resource might be supported by a similar student study intended to measure idling time in school parking lot.
Relevant Curriculum Units
The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.
- Step 1Select a province
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Newfoundland & Labrador
- Nova Scotia
- Ontario
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 11
- Step 3Select a subject
- Physics
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Energy and Society
- Grade 12
- Step 3Select a subject
- Physics
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Dynamics (University Prep.)
- Energy Transformations (College Prep.)
- Energy and Momentum (College prep.)
- Motion and Its Applications (College Prep.)
- Prince Edward Island
- Saskatchewan
- Yukon Territory
Themes Addressed
Air, Atmosphere & Climate (2)
- Air Pollution
- Climate Change
Citizenship (1)
- Ecological Footprint
Energy (1)
- Energy Use
