top of page
  • Writer's pictureMichael Mannix

Teach Motion with Motion

The most basic application of Snap! is to make a sprite move on the stage. The study of physics begins with motion. This seems like a perfect match to me and I have developed units of study for my class this year in which Snap! is prominent. One of the features in the first unit (constant-velocity motion) is a series of Snap! scripts that generate motion scenarios that can be run repeatedly, with randomized variations in the parameters of the motion. Students are led to calculate a displacement, a velocity , or a total time based on knowledge of two of these three aspects of the motion. For each "problem" the set up and student prompt appear on the stage of the Snap! display. Students write their calculation to solve the problem in their notebook. In essence, this is no more than a traditional worksheet with a series of problems that vary slightly from one another. However, these motion problems utilize the motion of a sprite with a frame of reference - which I think is an upgrade in presentation over a static word problem on a sheet of paper.


Here are links to the practice series:

Practice Series #1 (predict the displacement, knowing the velocity and time of movement to occur)

Practice Series #2 (calculate the velocity, after watching a sprite move a known displacement in a known amount of time)

Practice Series #3 (predict the time it will take a sprite to move a known displacement at a known velocity)


Students do not write any Snap! code in these exercises. These are teacher-created scripts to be used as instructional tools. Student opportunities to code with Snap! are part of the unit, but not in this particular exercise. Contact me if you would like to see the document I provide to students as part of these exercises.

315 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Kinematic Equation Solver

I have been surprised with the difficulty my students are having completing the first project (see previous post). I felt that I virtually gave them the code. However, trouble persist. Very telling

bottom of page