Graph Stories

Understand motion with distance-time graphs! Practice interpreting and creating graphs for real-world scenarios.

Graphing Stories Match each description to one of the graphs below. A child runs at a constant speed of 40 s before stopping. A panda moves slowly at a constant speed of 40 s before stopping. A cheetah stalks his prey, moving slowly, stopping occasionally. A rabbit runs away from a farmer, not stopping for anything! Shown below are six distance-time graphs. Each sentence in the table describes one of the graphs. Write the letter of the correct graph next to each sentence. Mr. Jones travels to work and immediately returns. F Mr. Jones leaves work and travels home at a steady speed. D Mr. Jones leaves home and travels to work at a steady speed. A Mr. Jones stays at work C Mr. Jones travels to work, stays there for sometime and then returns home. B Mr. Jones leaves home and travels to work, stopping at the shop on the way. E Draw a distance time graph for an otter that swims 100 m in 30 s, before he gets lazy and drifts along 50 m in 20 s. The otter then relaxes on the riverbank for 10 seconds. A driver stopped her car for a traffic light. After waiting for the light to turn green, then the driver continued on her way. A train pulls into a station and lets off its passengers. A person parachutes from an airplane, free-falls for a while, opens her chute, slows down, and lands on the ground. A canoeist starts from a dock and paddles to the end of a lake and back. This graph shows thecanoeist’s distance from the dock during this trip. How long did this trip take? How far is it to the end of the lake? What does the flat portion of the graph represent? Was the canoeist travelling faster on the way out or on the way back? Draw the story on the graph below. Desmos Classroom Activities Go to the link and sign into Desmos with Google. Complete the activity.