In this lesson, students will use a simulation to manipulate several variables that impact the way a skateboarder moves on a track.

• Students will observe how variations in the dips and inclines of a skateboard track affect a skateboarder's motion.
• Students will analyze the affects of gravity and friction on the motion of the skateboarder.
• Students will apply knowledge of potential and kinetic energy to designing their own tracks.

• gravity
• potential energy
• kinetic energy
• friction
• speed
• force
• energy system

Adapted from a PhET™ simulation, this lesson involves students using TI-Nspire technology to simulate, observe and manipulate some variables that affect the way a skateboarder moves on a track.

As a result, students will:

• Reinforce understanding of how gravity and friction affect motion within a system.
• Understand that an object has potential energy due to its position above the surface of a body in the universe.
• Understand that kinetic energy is energy due to motion relative to a system.
• Recognize that potential energy can be transformed to kinetic energy and how this is related to the motion of a skateboard.
• Infer that some kinetic energy will be transformed to thermal energy due to friction.