This packet is everything a parent or guide needs to assess Unit 01 at home — the learning targets, the answers that count as correct, the mastery rubric, calibration examples, and a clipboard score sheet. No multiple-choice test: the student shows mastery by running the motion lab and reasoning from a velocity–time graph aloud.
By the end of the Kinematics & Motion unit, a student should be able to:
Six criteria, each judged Not yet / Approaching / Mastered (Page 3).
Position and time captured with photogates or video — measured live.
The student reasons from a motion graph aloud (Page 4 anchors).
Contemporaneous record of times, distances, and the graphs drawn from them.
You are making a decision, not adding up points. For each criterion, decide whether the work is Not yet, Approaching, or Mastered — the column language tells you which. A criterion counts as mastered only when the student can both run the technique and justify the motion physics behind it. A student carries three tokens per term; one token buys a re-do of one criterion on another day, so a single bad afternoon never sinks the unit.
Accept any answer in the synonyms column — they are pre-approved as equivalent. The third column flags the confusions that look close but are not yet, so you can coach precisely.
| Canonical answer | Accepted synonyms | Common confusion / discriminator |
|---|---|---|
| Describing motion | ||
| Position | location; x | Displacement is the change in position; distance is path length |
| Velocity | speed with direction; v | Speed is the magnitude; velocity also carries a sign / direction |
| Acceleration | rate of change of velocity; a | Can be nonzero while slowing; then it points opposite the velocity |
| Displacement | change in position; Δx | A vector; not the same as total distance traveled |
| Motion graphs | ||
| Slope | rise over run; gradient | Slope of x–t is velocity; slope of v–t is acceleration |
| Area under the curve | accumulated value | Area under v–t is displacement; under a–t is change in velocity |
| x–t graph | position–time graph | Its slope gives velocity, point by point |
| v–t graph | velocity–time graph | Slope gives acceleration; area gives displacement |
| Free fall & projectiles | ||
| Free fall | motion under gravity alone | g ≈ 9.8 m/s² downward; independent of mass |
| Acceleration due to gravity | g | Constant near Earth’s surface; same for all falling objects |
| Projectile motion | 2-D motion under gravity | Horizontal and vertical motion are independent, linked only by time |
| Range | horizontal distance | Set by launch speed, angle, and flight time — not by mass |
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position, velocity & acceleration | Uses the words interchangeably; ignores sign and direction. | Distinguishes the three but mixes up the sign of acceleration when slowing down. | Separates all three cleanly, reasons with signs and directions, and explains why an object can slow while accelerating. |
| Motion graphs (x–t, v–t, a–t) | Cannot read a value or slope off a motion graph. | Reads points but confuses slope and area when translating between graphs. | Reads, sketches, and translates between all three graphs — slope gives rate, area gives accumulation — fluently. |
| Kinematic equations | Grabs an equation at random and plugs numbers. | Picks a workable equation but mishandles a missing variable. | Selects the right constant-acceleration equation for the knowns and unknowns and justifies the choice. |
| Free fall & projectile motion | Treats a projectile as moving in a single lumped direction. | Separates axes but couples the horizontal and vertical times incorrectly. | Analyzes horizontal and vertical motion independently, linked only by time, and predicts range and flight time. |
| Lab technique (timing & motion capture) | Records times sloppily; ignores reaction-time error. | Collects data but does not repeat trials or average. | Uses photogates or video analysis to capture clean, repeated data and reports it with uncertainty. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Treats the science as isolated facts. | Names a link to history, reading, or writing but cannot defend it. | Connects the unit across History · Reading · Writing and defends why it matters. |
Work down the criteria one at a time. Ask the student to reason it out rather than recall — “what does the slope of this v–t graph tell you?” Reading the graph as the story of a moving object is where Approaching and Mastered separate. Reading a value is Approaching; explaining why the graph looks that way is Mastered.
Read these before you grade. They show what Mastered and Not yet actually sound like, plus the edge cases where you should coach rather than decide on the spot.
Student: ______________________________________ Date: _______________ Guide: _________________________
| # | Criterion | Decision | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Position, velocity & acceleration | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 2 | Motion graphs (x–t, v–t, a–t) | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 3 | Kinematic equations | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 4 | Free fall & projectile motion | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 5 | Lab technique (timing & motion capture) | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 6 | Integration (cross-domain) | NY / Appr / Mast |
☐ No ☐ Yes — for criterion: __________ Tokens remaining: ☐ 3 ☐ 2 ☐ 1 ☐ 0
NY = Not yet · Appr = Approaching · Mast = Mastered · Unsure between two levels? Circle the lower one and note what a re-do would need.