On using Geometer's Sketchpad to teach relative velocity

In the current Additional Mathematics syllabus (Ministry of Education, 2000), the topic Relative Velocity has been introduced. This topic involves abstract Mechanics concepts, which are difficult for both students and teachers. Many junior teachers might not have studied an undergraduate Mechanics course in their undergraduate days. As Leong & Lim (2003) found out, effective use of Geometer's Sketchpad *(GSP) was able to improve students' spatial ability measured by the students' performance in geometry achievement test. Since Mechanics, and Relative Velocity in particular, are built up from geometry concept, the use of GSP may be able to offer some hope in assisting students to visualize some concepts for this topic. In this note, the uses of GSP to enhance students' understanding of some rudimentary kinematics concepts will be discussed. It is hoped that teachers will be able to illustrate the concepts without getting students into the rigors of tedious mathematical computation. All the complicated mathematical computation could be left to post-secondary level when the students take up a course in Applied Mathematics.