Mississippi Science PHY.1.2
The Standard
- PHY.1
- Students will investigate and understand how to analyze and interpret data.
Interpret and predict 1-D motion based on displacement vs. time, velocity vs. time, or acceleration vs. time graphs (e.g., free-falling objects).
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · One-Dimensional Motion
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read position, velocity, and acceleration from graphs over time. They use the graphs to predict direction, speed changes, and when an object turns around.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students use graph slopes to find velocity or acceleration. They use signed areas to find displacement or change in velocity. For a ball tossed upward, they show velocity changing sign while acceleration stays downward.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may read the height of a position-time graph as speed instead of using its slope. They may think negative velocity always means slowing down. Some draw acceleration changing direction when a tossed ball turns around.
How to Assess It
- Give students a velocity-time line from (0 s, 20 m/s) to (3 s, -10 m/s), with upward positive. Ask when the ball turns, its acceleration, and its displacement over 3 seconds.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Lay a five-meter tape on the floor, film a student walking out and back, and plot position each second.
Show one velocity-time line above zero sloping down and another below zero sloping down; ask which object slows down.
Hand out velocity-time cards with flat, rising, falling, and crossing-zero lines; have pairs match each to a motion description.
Show an elevator floor-display video; have students sketch velocity and acceleration during departure, steady travel, and arrival.
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Printable PHY.1.2 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- PHY.1.1
Investigate and analyze evidence gained through observation or experimental design regarding the one-dimensional (1-D) motion of objects. Design and conduct exp...
- PHS.5.2
Design and conduct an investigation to study the motion of an object using properties such as displacement, time of motion, velocity, and acceleration.
- P.6.6.5
Conduct investigations to predict and explain the motion of an object according to its position, direction, speed, and acceleration.
- PHY.1.7
Design different scenarios, and predict graph shapes for distance/time, velocity/time, and acceleration/time graphs.
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