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Year 11
Higher

Checking and securing understanding of drawing distance-time graphs

I can draw a distance-time graph to model a journey.

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New
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Year 11
Higher

Checking and securing understanding of drawing distance-time graphs

I can draw a distance-time graph to model a journey.

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Share activities with pupils
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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. You can sketch a graph based on the information you have been given.
  2. Important given values should be marked on your sketch.
  3. On a distance-time graph, a horizontal line means no distance was travelled for that time.
  4. A slanted line means that the distance from the start is changing over time.

Keywords

  • Displacement - Displacement is the distance from the starting point when measured in a straight line.

Common misconception

Leaving out key information when sketching graphs.

Although sketches do not need to be to scale they do need to contain all key information. Getting pupils to write these on as coordinate pairs is the clearest way. Sketches still have to be useful for the purpose of a model.

Some classes may not be ready to look at negative displacement. This only makes up the final part of the second learning cycle. Question 2) in task B can be edited easily by reflecting the final 2 line segments in the $$x$$ axis. The rest of the task should still be accessible to all.
Teacher tip

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What number is the arrow pointing to on this number line?
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 125
Q2.
What number is the arrow pointing to on this number line?
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 136
Q3.
The coordinates of the point shown on the axes are (2, ).
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 220
Q4.
The coordinates of the point shown on the axes are ( , 100).
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 4.8
Q5.
Which graph shows a journey where speed is constant throughout?
Correct Answer: An image in a quiz
An image in a quiz
An image in a quiz
An image in a quiz
Q6.
How do we represent an object stopping for part of a journey on a distance-time graph?
A diagonal line with positive gradient
A diagonal line with negative gradient
A curve
Correct answer: A horizontal line
A vertical line

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Izzy travelled 12 km in half an hour. Then stopped for 15 minutes. Then travelled another 8 km in 25 minutes. If using these axes what would be the best scale for time?
An image in a quiz
Steps of 2 minutes
Steps of 5 minutes
Correct answer: Steps of 10 minutes
Steps of 20 minutes
Steps of 30 minutes
Q2.
Izzy travelled 12 km in half an hour. Then stopped for 15 minutes. Then travelled another 8 km in 25 minutes. What would be the problem with using steps of 2 km on these axes?
An image in a quiz
Correct answer: The journey would not fit on the graph.
The graph would be really small and not make use of the space.
The coordinates would be between gridlines and difficult to plot.
Q3.
Izzy travelled 12 km in half an hour. Then stopped for 15 minutes. Then travelled another 8 km in 25 minutes. What might be the difficulty with using steps of 5 km on these axes?
An image in a quiz
The journey would not fit on the graph.
The graph would be really small and not make use of the space.
Correct answer: The coordinates would be between gridlines and difficult to plot.
Q4.
When might you use a displacement-time graph instead of a distance-time graph?
When all the travel is in the same direction.
When you want to know how long the journey has taken in total.
When you want to know how far the journey was in total.
Correct answer: When you want to know when the object has changed direction.
Q5.
On this displacement-time graph what does the line segment marked a) represent?
An image in a quiz
Object is stationary.
Moving away from a fixed start point at a constant speed.
Correct answer: Moving back towards a fixed start point at a constant speed.
Object's speed is increasing.
Object's speed is decreasing.
Q6.
On this displacement-time graph what does the line segment marked b) represent?
An image in a quiz
Moving away from a fixed start point in the opposite direction.
Correct answer: Moving towards a fixed start point from the opposite direction.
Travelling upwards from a position below ground.
An impossible journey as distance cannot be negative.