Students are confronted with a scenario of a student who is texting and driving in the school parking lot and they are tasked to determine the effect of various parameters to see if a student will collide with a pedestrian. Students must begin by breaking the scenario down into more manageable parts to determine what must be studied about the situation. Through a series of labs and activities, students learn how to model and predict situations with constant velocity and acceleration. Then, coding a spreadsheet, students model the complex situation of a texting driver, reacting, and braking during a potentially hazardous situation to create an evidence-based argument.

 Students will watch videos and identify the type of energy being used.  They will then determine any cause and effect relationships of the energy transfer and/or – if the transfer of energy changed to a different form?  These include kinetic, height, elastic, heat, and collision.

Students will explore Newton's laws of motion through a variety of activities, including an investigation that involves collisions.

Students will use Sphero 2.0 to impart a collision to study force, motion, and momentum in physical systems.