IB DP Physics(2025)A1.4 Motion Graphs Lesson Pack

IB DP Physics lesson pack on motion graphs, Topic A.1 Kinematics, SL and HL, first assessment 2025. Teaches interpreting gradient, intercepts and area. Students read velocity and acceleration as gradients, displacement as the area under a velocity–time graph, and sketch velocity–time and acceleration–time graphs to describe a motion. Editable worksheet, lesson deck, teacher key, worked solutions and questions-only assessment, supplied as self-contained HTML plus colour and black-and-white PDFs.

Velocity and acceleration as the gradients of a motion graph.
Average and instantaneous values from chords and tangents.
Area under a graph as displacement and change in velocity.
Five multiple-choice exit-ticket questions with full explanations each target a named misconception: reading a motion graph as a picture of the route, a horizontal line meaning “at rest” on a position–time graph but “constant velocity” on a velocity–time graph, signed area as displacement rather than distance, counting the moments of rest as the axis crossings rather than the turning points, and the tangent (instantaneous) versus the chord (average). A closing data-analysis question puts the whole lesson onto logged data with uncertainty bars: students draw a best straight line to read the acceleration from its gradient, construct the steepest and shallowest lines through the uncertainty bars, and read a displacement from the area under the line.

Skills
-Interpret the features of a graph (explicitly taught)

• Sketch graphs with labelled but unscaled axes (practised).
• Construct lines of maximum and minimum gradient (practised).

**What’s in the pack

• Student Worksheet:
• Teacher Key:
• Solutions:
• Assessment:
• Lesson deck:

Written for the IB DP Physics guide (first assessment 2025), Topic A.1 (Kinematics), at both Standard and Higher Level. The pack teaches the graphical treatment of two of the topic’s understandings: that velocity is the rate of change of position and acceleration the rate of change of velocity, read here as the gradient of a graph; and the difference between instantaneous and average values and how to determine them, read here as the gradient of a tangent against a chord, together with the area under a velocity–time graph as the displacement. It builds on the speed, velocity and acceleration packs and stays exactly on its declared scope, leaving the suvat equations of motion and projectile motion to the follow-on packs. SI units, IB notation and IB command terms are used throughout.

The worksheet and deck are self-contained HTML files: they open in any modern browser with nothing to install, and the worksheet is fully editable, so every question and number can be adapted to your class. Suitable for ages 16–19 as a first-teaching lesson, cover lesson, homework or revision.