Physics · Unit 1: Kinematics ·  Activity 1-1-2

Graph Stories

📊 Activity
2 class days  ·  Work in pairs
Activity 1-1-2: Reading Position-Time Graphs

A position-time graph is a motion story with the words stripped out. Today you'll practice putting the words back in — and then take words someone else wrote and turn them back into a graph. By the end of Day 2, a graph should look less like a math problem and more like a sentence you can just read.

🎯 Goals

🧰 Materials

📄Graph-reading handout (position-time graphs, Day 1)
🃏Motion story cards (Day 2)
📈Graph paper or grid handout (Day 2)
📓Physics notebook
DAY 1
Reading & Describing
Section 1 of 4

Warm-Up — Read the Line

1
Look at the sample graph without reading ahead.
Before anything else, answer out loud with your partner: is the object moving, and if so, is it speeding up, slowing down, or constant? Don't calculate yet — just look at the shape.
0510152002468101214x (m)t (s)

Sample graph — your handout has four different ones like this to work through.

2
Now find the position at three specific times your teacher calls out.
Trace up from the time axis to the line, then across to the position axis. Say your answer out loud before writing it down.
Section 2 of 4

Slope Practice — Speed and Direction

3
Break the graph on your handout into segments where the slope changes.
Mark each segment boundary with a small tick on the time axis.
4
For each segment, calculate the slope (rise over run) and interpret it.
State three things per segment: the numeric slope, whether the object is moving away or back toward the origin (or standing still), and how fast.
⚠️ A slope of 0 is a completely valid answer — it means the object is at rest for that segment, not that you did something wrong.
SegmentSlope (m/s)What's happening
Segment A (0–4 s)
Segment B (4–7 s)
Segment C (7–14 s)

In-class scratch space only — copy your final answers onto your handout to turn in.

📓 Physics Notebook
Pick one segment from your handout and write a one-sentence motion description for it — the kind of sentence you'd use to describe it to someone who can't see the graph. Trade with your partner and see if their sentence matches your segment.
DAY 2
From Story to Graph
Section 3 of 4

Motion Story Cards

5
Draw a motion story card.
Each card describes a short motion in words — starting position, what happens, roughly how long it takes.
6
Sketch the matching position-time graph on grid paper.
Label both axes with units before you draw anything. Then sketch each phase of the story as its own segment, paying attention to which phases should look steeper or flatter than others.
⚠️ Don't worry about getting exact numbers perfect — focus on getting the shape (rising vs. falling vs. flat, steep vs. gentle) right relative to the other segments in the same story.
7
Trade graphs with another pair — but not your story card.
Have them write a motion story from your graph alone. Then compare their story to your original card.
📓 Physics Notebook
Where did your partner's story-from-your-graph match your original card, and where did it differ? If it differed, was that because your graph was unclear, or because more than one story could honestly match the same graph?
Section 4 of 4

Conclusion

Question 1
Two different motion stories could produce graphs that look almost identical. What details in a story change the graph, and what details don't matter at all for the shape of the line?
Question 2
Explain, in your own words, why a flat segment on a position-time graph does NOT mean the object disappeared or the story stopped — it means something specific about the motion.
Question 3
If two objects' lines cross once on the same graph, can you tell from that alone which object started closer to the origin? Explain your reasoning.
📤 Turn In
← Back to Activity 1-1-2 OverviewReview the Deep Dive →This fluency is exactly what Project 1-1-4 will ask you to demonstrate live.