Physics / Physical ScienceGrades 9-116 roles86 min1-2 class periods
Physics / Physical ScienceGrades 9-116 roles86 min1-2 class periods
A working film production with six second units on the call sheet, present day. Same equipment list, same briefs, same money, and a director who circles the takes she can cut and pays for nothing else.
Four to six film second units - the crews that shoot the stunts - bid for and execute stunt contracts on a working production. Every brief states what is fixed (heights, entry speeds, masses, friction coefficients, telemetry ratings), names the one or two rig settings the crew controls, and prints the scoring zones on the quantity that gets measured. Crews do the kinematics on paper call sheets, dial the rig, write THE CALL - their predicted outcome number - and lock. Then the engine runs the take with the same equations printed on the card and the projector plays it back: the run, slow-motion at the decisive beat, the velocity vector, a live speed-time trace with the zone edges marked, and the crew's call flagged against the actual. PRINT is full pay, COVERAGE is half, BUST pays nothing, and a SAFETY stand-down costs money. Round 2 puts a mystery winch on the board and sells rehearsals as information. Round 3 rains on the outdoor briefs and opens the first sealed reverse auction. Round 4 rescores everything on a director's target read in g. Two class periods recommended.
Small (4 crews), Standard (5 crews), Full (6 crews)
Learning Objectives
7 objectives
Standards
8 standards aligned
Where This Fits in Your Curriculum
This is the Unit 1 and Unit 2 consolidation, not a first day. Run it in weeks 3 to 6 of a standard physics course, once one-dimensional kinematics is fluent and students have at least SEEN a horizontal launch - Round 1's teaching line carries the independence of components if they have not. Students need the big four kinematics equations, F = ma, and friction as f = mu N. They do NOT need work, energy, momentum, angled projectile launches, air-resistance modeling, or trigonometry. Underneath the film-crew theme the game drills one habit: rearrange the equation for the quantity you control before you touch anything. Physics 1, Honors Physics and Physical Science teachers get the most out of it; Conceptual Physics classes can run Rounds 1 to 3 unchanged. The recommended path is two class periods, and the guide carries a cut ladder for the day that runs short.
What Students Will Learn
Rearrange a kinematics equation to solve for the quantity a rig actually controls, then predict the measured outcome before committing to it.
Apply the independence of horizontal and vertical motion to a horizontal launch: use the drop height to find the flight time and the exit speed to find the range.
Use Newton's second law with kinetic friction, a = T/m - mu g, to choose a cable tension that produces a target speed at a mark.
Explain and compute why increasing stopping distance decreases deceleration and therefore the force on an occupant, using v^2 = v0^2 + 2 a dx.
Convert a coarse experimental result - a band and a direction - into an interval for an unknown constant, then re-dial from that interval.
Decide whether purchased information (a 500 dollar rehearsal, an 800 dollar drying fee) is worth its price by comparing it against the free recomputation it replaces.
Read a speed-time graph well enough to locate a zone edge on it and say where a take went wrong.
Cases Included
NGSS HS-PS2-1 - Analyze data to support the claim that Newton's second law of motion describes the mathematical relationship among the net force on a macroscopic object, its mass, and its acceleration. The Sled Shot and the Barrel Run are both solved by writing the net force and nothing else.
NGSS HS-PS2-3 - Apply scientific and engineering ideas to design, evaluate, and refine a device that minimizes the force on a macroscopic object during a collision. The Barrel Run is exactly that task: choose the bag depth that lands a target deceleration inside a rated band.
NGSS HS-ETS1-3 - Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability and aesthetics. The rehearsal purchase, the drying fee and the sealed bid are all explicit cost-benefit calls with the arithmetic on screen.
NGSS Science and Engineering Practice 5 - Using mathematics and computational thinking. Every lock in the game is preceded by a hand computation on paper that the engine then checks.
NGSS Crosscutting Concept - Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Explanation. Each brief isolates one causal chain from a dial to a measured quantity, and the results theater plays that chain back as a picture.
Common Core Math HSA-CED.A.4 - Rearrange formulas to highlight a quantity of interest, using the same reasoning as in solving equations. Students rearrange x = v t, v^2 = 2 a d and a = v^2 / (2d) for the dial they control, every round.
Common Core Math HSN-Q.A.3 - Choose a level of accuracy appropriate to limitations on measurement when reporting quantities. The zone bands, the callout tolerances and the g = 10 convention are all accuracy decisions students have to reason about out loud.
Common Core ELA RST.9-10.7 - Translate quantitative information expressed in words in a text into visual form and vice versa. The brief is a table of numbers, the zone strip is the same information as a picture, and the speed-time trace is a third representation of the same take.
Social & Emotional Learning (CASEL)
Aligned to the CASEL framework's core competencies. These are the SEL skills students actively practice while playing.
Responsible Decision-MakingPrimary. Every round is a cost-benefit decision made under uncertainty with the arithmetic visible: buy a 500 dollar rehearsal or dial a guess, pay 800 dollars to keep your numbers or spend two minutes redoing the friction term, bid low enough to win the premium and high enough that winning is worth anything. The margin line on the bid ticket is deliberately on screen so the decision is reasoned rather than intuited.
Self-ManagementRound 3 is built around resisting an instinct. Overnight rain changes one term in one equation, and the reflex is to pay the fee and make the problem go away. The crews that stop, rewrite the net force with the wet friction, and re-dial for free are practising exactly the pause the round exists for - and the reveal script honors both choices out loud so the paying crews are not humiliated for it.
Relationship SkillsThe job cards and the paper call sheets force explicit negotiation inside each crew. The Rig Tech owns the dials, the Safety Officer owns the limits and has to ask what happens if we overshoot before anything locks, the Line Producer owns the money line and the bid, and the Stunt Coordinator is the only person who can lock. The rule printed on every sheet is that nobody types until the sheet is filled - a designed defence against the one-fast-kid-drives failure mode.
Flexible Class Sizes
Small (4 crews)
Four second units, 8 to 20 students. Identical boards. Fewer bidders makes the sealed-bid rounds gentler, which is useful on a first run.
Standard (5 crews)
Five second units, 10 to 25 students. This is the default and the one the timing budget is written for.
Full (6 crews)
Six second units, 12 to 30 students. Thirty-one or thirty-two students fit by running two crews six-strong; 33 to 34 needs four crews six-strong. The fifth and sixth students at a table take the Spotter and Continuity job cards, which are paper jobs and do not need the device.
How the Game Plays Out
Turn 1: Training Day
One brief, one dial, one lock
"What sets the time in the air, and what sets the distance?"
Turn 2: Open Casting
Three briefs, one choice, and a number nobody will give you
"When is five hundred dollars of information cheaper than a guess?"
Turn 3: Rain Delay
One term changed overnight, and the first sealed bid
"What did the rain actually change, and which term does it live in?"
Turn 4: The Finale
A number in g, and two dials that fight each other
"Why does a deeper bag mean a gentler read, and which law is that?"
Roles Your Students Will Play
Click any role to see their background and what they are trying to accomplish.
Bravo Unit
Bravo Unit came up shooting car work for a rental house before the production picked them up for the season. Two trucks, one crane, and a reputation for never having stood a day down for a rig failure. Like every unit on this call sheet Bravo works off the same equipment list, the same briefs and the same money.
You start with 10,000 dollars. Every brief is open to every crew and any number of crews may run the same one. Your rig fee is charged whether the take prints or busts. Rehearsals and track drying are charged the moment you buy them, not at settle. Cash can go negative and no crew is ever eliminated.
Goals
PRINT as often as the arithmetic allows. A Headline Unit needs three PRINT takes and 21,500 dollars in a four-round game. In a three-round game it needs two PRINT takes and 16,800 dollars.
Fill the call sheet before you touch a dial. Givens, then equation, then the number.
Spend money on information only when the information changes what you would do.
Delta Unit
Delta Unit is the youngest crew on the call sheet and the only one that came out of a stunt driving school rather than a rental house. They over-prepare, they write everything down, and they have never once been late to a set. Like every unit here Delta works off the same equipment list, the same briefs and the same money.
You start with 10,000 dollars. Every brief is open to every crew and any number of crews may run the same one. Your rig fee is charged whether the take prints or busts. Rehearsals and track drying are charged the moment you buy them, not at settle. Cash can go negative and no crew is ever eliminated.
Goals
PRINT as often as the arithmetic allows. A Headline Unit needs three PRINT takes and 21,500 dollars in a four-round game. In a three-round game it needs two PRINT takes and 16,800 dollars.
Fill the call sheet before you touch a dial. Givens, then equation, then the number.
Spend money on information only when the information changes what you would do.
Echo Unit
Echo Unit specialises in high work - crane falls, tower gags, anything that starts by going up a ladder. They own the best air bags on the lot and they are quietly proud of the fact that no bag of theirs has ever been rated for less than the gag it caught. Like every unit here Echo works off the same equipment list, the same briefs and the same money.
You start with 10,000 dollars. Every brief is open to every crew and any number of crews may run the same one. Your rig fee is charged whether the take prints or busts. Rehearsals and track drying are charged the moment you buy them, not at settle. Cash can go negative and no crew is ever eliminated.
Goals
PRINT as often as the arithmetic allows. A Headline Unit needs three PRINT takes and 21,500 dollars in a four-round game. In a three-round game it needs two PRINT takes and 16,800 dollars.
Fill the call sheet before you touch a dial. Givens, then equation, then the number.
Spend money on information only when the information changes what you would do.
Kilo Unit
Kilo Unit has been on this production longer than the director has. They shoot the sled work and the tracking gags, and their rig tech has a laminated card of equations taped inside the truck door that predates everyone currently on the crew. Like every unit here Kilo works off the same equipment list, the same briefs and the same money.
You start with 10,000 dollars. Every brief is open to every crew and any number of crews may run the same one. Your rig fee is charged whether the take prints or busts. Rehearsals and track drying are charged the moment you buy them, not at settle. Cash can go negative and no crew is ever eliminated.
Goals
PRINT as often as the arithmetic allows. A Headline Unit needs three PRINT takes and 21,500 dollars in a four-round game. In a three-round game it needs two PRINT takes and 16,800 dollars.
Fill the call sheet before you touch a dial. Givens, then equation, then the number.
Spend money on information only when the information changes what you would do.
Sierra Unit
Sierra Unit came off commercials, where the budgets are small and the margins are smaller, and they brought the habit with them: nobody on this crew spends money without saying out loud what it buys. Like every unit here Sierra works off the same equipment list, the same briefs and the same money.
You start with 10,000 dollars. Every brief is open to every crew and any number of crews may run the same one. Your rig fee is charged whether the take prints or busts. Rehearsals and track drying are charged the moment you buy them, not at settle. Cash can go negative and no crew is ever eliminated.
Goals
PRINT as often as the arithmetic allows. A Headline Unit needs three PRINT takes and 21,500 dollars in a four-round game. In a three-round game it needs two PRINT takes and 16,800 dollars.
Fill the call sheet before you touch a dial. Givens, then equation, then the number.
Spend money on information only when the information changes what you would do.
Tango Unit
Tango Unit is the crew the production calls when a gag has to be re-rigged overnight. They are fast, they improvise well, and their safety officer is the one person on the lot everybody actually listens to. Like every unit here Tango works off the same equipment list, the same briefs and the same money.
You start with 10,000 dollars. Every brief is open to every crew and any number of crews may run the same one. Your rig fee is charged whether the take prints or busts. Rehearsals and track drying are charged the moment you buy them, not at settle. Cash can go negative and no crew is ever eliminated.
Goals
PRINT as often as the arithmetic allows. A Headline Unit needs three PRINT takes and 21,500 dollars in a four-round game. In a three-round game it needs two PRINT takes and 16,800 dollars.
Fill the call sheet before you touch a dial. Givens, then equation, then the number.
Spend money on information only when the information changes what you would do.
Hand Each Student Their Own Sheet
One click on the teacher dashboard prints a dossier for every role - background, goals, key facts, and their confidential briefing - plus the primary-source packet and a vocabulary sheet. Print them, or save as PDF, so each student reads their role on paper instead of huddling around one screen. The app still runs the votes and the action; the paper just carries the reading.
Primary Sources
Every role includes real historical documents. Students read them because they need the information to make their case.
Second Unit Camera Report (simplified for classroom use)
Key Terms Students Will Learn
displacementvelocityaccelerationfree fallprojectilehorizontal launchindependence of componentskinematicsnet forceNewton's first lawNewton's second lawinertiafrictioncoefficient of frictionnormal forcetensiondecelerationg-forcemargin of safetytolerance
After the Game: Debrief Questions
Rain lowers the friction under a sled pulled by the same cable. What changes physically, and which term of F = ma does it live in?
Why does a deeper crash bag mean a gentler telemetry read? Walk the chain out loud.
Wardrobe swaps in a dummy thirty kilograms heavier for the High Fall. Does the crew have to re-dial the platform height?
On almost every brief tonight, overshooting cost more than undershooting. Why do real safety engineers design error asymmetrically?
When is a five-hundred-dollar rehearsal worth more than it costs, and when is it money set on fire? What exactly does band-plus-direction let you compute?
On a premium job, how can you tell whether winning paid more than your fallback would have? What would you bid differently next time?
Our lab uses g = 10 and ignores air resistance, and the engine plays by exactly the same rules. Where would those two simplifications bite on a real set, and which brief tonight was the closest call?
When a bike leaves a ramp, nothing pushes it forward. So why does it keep moving forward?
Sketch the speed-time trace of the Sled Shot run at the dry tension on a wet day. Where does the line cross the zone edge? What dial change brings it back?
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