Provide examples that require students to make qualitative comparisons between graphs. Students are unable to qualitatively discriminate between slopes. A student cannot tell which of two slopes is steeper. Students do not recognize situations that require them to calculate area if there is no grid present. Require students to verbalize their thoughts about problems.
Students use kinematics terms interchangeably and inappropriately.
Students misunderstand basic definitions. Emphasize graphing calculations that are unique and different from equation-oriented problems. Students use simple formulae or unit analysis when they should be calculating slope or area under the curve. Students read off the ordinate value when they should be finding slope. On a position-time graph, a student gives the value of the position as the value of the velocity at that point in time.