Table of Contents

Orbital Mechanics

Information for Teachers

About this Resource

This Resource has been designed to facilitate teaching topics related to orbital motion through examples and activites which include the geometric and energetic properties of orbits.

Graviational force is the focus of this package.

It is best suited to grades 10 through 12 secondary school science students who have some background in physics at the introductory level. Some of the concepts presented may go beyond core curriculum requirements for grade 10. The unit could be used as extension/enrichment to the Motion strand of the grade 10 curriculum.

Preparing to Use This Resource

Experience has shown that the best way to use this resource is to:

1. Begin by printing out the entire portfolio. Transparency masters can be printed directly onto colour (or grayscale) transparencies, or printed on ordinary paper and then photocopied onto transparencies.

   Hint: Grayscale transparencies are helpful as they can be highlighted with colour markers when you are discussing them in class.

2. Read over the material. Make margin notes for yourself, so that you can easily align it to your student's backgrounds and abilities.

3. Using this resource as a basis for teaching orbital motion, Newtonian mechanics and related science topics will give students an insightful understanding of the physical concepts related to space science.

   Within each unit are:

   1) printable pages with explanatory notes;
   
   2) transparency masters for overhead projectors;
   
   3) student assignments.
   
   

What This Module is Not . . .

This Module is not a self-directed student web-search.

Expected Student Background

In order to use this resource effectively students should be familiar with the following:

1. The ability to solve simple linear equations such as v = d/t ;

2. The ability to work with exponential notation such as 6.67 x 10^-11;

3. An elementary understanding of Newtonian mechanics;

4. An elementary understanding of centripetal force;

5. An elementary understanding of the vector quantities.

How to Use This Resource

There are many possible ways to use this resource. Generally however, teachers print out each set of notes, duplicate them and hand them out to the students.

After the students have read a section and written a summary in their notebooks, teachers use the transparencies as a focus for further class discussion.

Student assignments are usually printed, copied, and handed out.

After the students have had a chance to work through each assignment it should be "taken-up."

Please Note: This resource is designed to focus on concepts related to orbital motion and gravitational force. Although it covers topics in orbital motion, planetary motion, conservation of energy, conic sections and vectors, it is not meant to be a definitive treatment of these topics.

Although changing orbital planes is described in this module, the vector concepts of torque, precession, and synchronicity are not discussed.

Curriculum Expectations

From the Common Framework of Science Learning Outcomes K-12, Pan-Canadian Protocol for Collaboration on School Curriculum, Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), 1997.

Grade 10: Motion

Skills

• select and use appropriate numeric, symbolic, graphical, and linguistic modes of representation to communicate ideas, plans, and results;

• estimate quantities;

• formulate operational definitions of major variables.

Science, Technology, Society and the Environment

• distinguish between scientific questions and technological problems;

• relate personal activities and various scientific and technological endeavours to specific science disciplines and interdisciplinary studies;

• identify possible areas of further study related to science and technology.

Knowledge

• demonstrate an understanding of different kinds of motion.

Grades 11 and 12: Energy and Momentum / Force, Motion and Work

Skills

• select and use appropriate numeric, symbolic, graphical, and linguistic modes of representation to communicate ideas, plans, and results;

• identify questions to investigate that arise from practical problems and issues.

Science, Technology, Society and the Environment

• distinguish between scientific questions and technological problems;

• analyse and describe examples where technologies were developed based on scientific understanding;

• explain how a major scientific milestone revolutionized thinking in the scientific communities.

Knowledge

Energy and Momentum

• analyse quantitatively problems related to kinematics and dynamics using the mechanical and energy concept;

• describe quantitatively mechanical energy as the sum of kinetic and potential energies;

• apply quantitatively Newton's laws of motion to impulse and momentum.

Force, Motion and Work

• describe uniform circular motion, using algebraic and vector analysis;

• analyse quantitatively two-dimensional motion in a horizontal plane and a vertical plane;

• analyse quantitatively the relationship among work, time, and power;

• analyse quantitatively the relationship among force, distance, and work;

• apply Newton's laws of motion to explain inertia, the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration, and the interaction of forces between two objects;

• identify the frame of reference for a given motion;

• analyse quantitatively the horizontal and vertical motion of a projectile;

• use vectors to represent force, velocity, and acceleration.

Teaching Strategies for Students with Special Needs

1. Post an outline for each day's lesson and activity.

2. State learning objectives clearly for the present activity/lesson.

3. Teach new vocabulary prior to assigning reading or as students engage in an activity.

4. Use visual organizers before, during and after learning activities to help students structure content. Visual organizers such as outlines, charts and diagrams can be given to students as advance organizers to assist in following a teacher explanation or demonstration. Similar types of organizers can be completed by students during activities to help them focus on concepts or processes. After an activity students can demonstrate their understanding through the use of organizers such as concept maps, by placing their ideas in a diagram and linking them with lines and words that indicate relationships between concepts. Discuss the concept maps with students to verify the validity of links, identify links that are missing, address students' misconceptions and identify areas for new learning.

5. Use structured questioning techniques to help students make inferences and construct knowledge.

6. As a wrap-up to each investigation or activity, review with students the concepts covered and the processes used. Encourage students to share their thinking out loud.

Assessment

Rubric

Note: The chart that follows identifies four levels of achievement. Levels 1 and 2 describe performance that is approaching the standard for the grade; level 3 describes the standard for the grade; and level 4 describes performance that is above the standard.

Understanding of Basic Concepts

The student:

 

Application of Inquiry Skills: Initiating and Planning, Performing and Recording, Analysing and Interpreting

The student:

 

Communication of Required Knowledge

The student:

 

Relating Science and the World Outside the School

The student: