This lesson plan and teacher's notes describe an inquiry-based activity for students to explore Newton's Second Law. In the activity, force and motion probes are used to take data where students directly exert an oscillating force. Student difficulties with graphical representations are addressed by requiring student predictions of graphs of force verses time, force verses velocity, and force versus acceleration, followed by the analysis of experimental data. The results make clear the Newton's Second Law relation is between force and acceleration, and not velocity. Notes on the purpose of the activity and implementation are included with teacher and student worksheets.

This is part of a collection of similar resources developed by participants in the College-Ready Math-Science Partnership at the University of Arkansas.