Things you'll need to decide on as you plan: Accumulating Changes

Bringing together two sets of constraints

Focusing on the learners:

Distinguishing–eliciting–connecting. How to:

• develop precise descriptions, building on everyday experiences
• exploit the availability of technology such as videocameras to tell stories about motion and recording of motion

Teacher Tip: These are all related to findings about children's ideas from research. The teaching activities will provide some suggestions. So will colleagues, near and far.

Focusing on the physics:

Representing–noticing–recording. How to:

• talk helpfully about clock time and duration
• separate instantaneous from average
• emphasise that all motion is relative motion
• exploit common patterns in thinking
• be clear about what is simply a convention, albeit a very useful one
• exploit clear diagrammatic conventions

Teacher Tip: Connecting what is experienced with what is written and drawn is essential to making sense of the connections between the theoretical world of physics and the lived-in world of the children. Don't forget to exemplify this action.