Things you'll need to decide on as you plan: Speed

Bringing together two sets of constraints

Focusing on the learners:

Distinguishing–eliciting–connecting. How to:

• encourage the use of both number and units when specifying the speed
• draw on everyday experiences to show how distance and duration are necessarily involved in speed
• show that finding speeds is not simple and straightforward

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:

• avoid getting bogged down in calculations
• use formulae intelligently
• introduce the idea that relative motion is the only motion, without causing indigestion
• differentiate the ways in which time is used

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.