Monday, November 25, 2013

A lesson to accompany Understanding Car Crashes

Understanding Car Crashes: It's Basic Physics was produced by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in 2000. They've done what they could to make sure no physics classroom is without the VHS or DVD. In 2010, they uploaded the 22-minute, Griff Jones-hosted video to YouTube.

I always liked it, but didn't know where to use it. This year I was able to carve out a few days between the last unit test of the first semester and final exams. My first semester is all mechanics, all the time. So it seemed like a good match.

Here's my student worksheet: YouTube Physics: Danger and Safety in Car Crashes @ TPT

And here's the video, itself.

Understanding Car Crashes: It's Basic Physics



My lesson continues after the video is over by inviting students to research vehicle safety ratings for two cars they might ride in at IIHS's website (http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings).

By the way, if you haven't seen my YouTube Physics page, check it out. You'll find even more engaging video lessons.

2 comments:

Kim said...

I've just used your lesson for the fourth semester. It's a great introduction to ideas of Newtons Laws and vehicle design - the entire second half of my physics unit. Thanks so much!

Kim said...

(Sorry, I thought my Google ID would show up on that last comment. Kim Gillard, Lacombe Composite High School, Lacombe Alberta)