Newton's laws of motion. Why moving things don't need a push to keep moving, what acceleration means exactly, and how force, mass and acceleration are linked by F = ma. Concept tutorials with a live force and motion board.
Each lesson works two ways. Students can work through the online tutorial at their own pace (it checks their answers and saves their progress in their browser), or you can teach it to the whole class from the slides, then send students into the tutorial for the Modify and Make steps.
Every lesson guide has plain-language notes, the answers to every check, a solution for every task, and slides and a worksheet for Waypoints Prepare. These guide pages are not linked from student pages, but they are not secret either: keep printed Teacher editions for answers you do not want students to find.
Inertia, acceleration as a defined quantity, and F = ma (AC9S10U05).
A force is a vector. Along one line, add forces that point the same way and subtract opposite ones: what is left is the net force, which is what changes motion. Misconception: adding every force as a number, ignoring direction. The force board draws arrows short when forces are large; read the values in the labels.
Forces come in pairs: A on B and B on A, same size, opposite directions, on different objects, so they never cancel. Weight and support on a book are balanced forces, not a pair. A free body diagram shows one object and every force on it; work each direction separately.
On screen: the short tutorials Solving force and motion problems (node 7) and Newton's laws in the real world (node 8) support the practice and application nodes; the in-your-book tasks are the main work.
Optional ideas if you run a practical for this unit: pick one, adapt it to your equipment, or use your own.
Safety and ethics: put a catch box at the end of the bench for trolleys, and keep feet clear of hanging masses.