Teaching kinematics in two dimensions

Abstract

Kinematics has almost always been introduced in one dimension. This seems to have been more or less universally assumed to be the simplest way, with little explicit deliberation. This paper presents a suggested 'teaching experiment', as a contribution to the didactical debate, starting in two dimensions, arguing that this might well, provide a more fruitful route into the tautological complexities of kinematics. Some of the affordances exploited will be relatively recent, due to the current culture and availability of mapping and tracking technologies. Other suggested affordances will be conceptual and more evolutionary, as the barriers to thinking with vectors and about accumulations are now much lower if the potential for pedagogical support in representational and measurement technology is exploited fully. But perhaps the most significant reason to consider a change is that current practices and explanations could be improved. The spatialising of duration in Cartesian graphs may present further tripwires for learning. There are no guarantees here, and practice is rather resistant to change, but perhaps new thinking and new tools might make the topic more accessible: more children could then reason more fruitfully if given access to new tools for representing, reasoning and predicting.