Average speed and displacement are the key concepts in this Grade 7 Science worksheet on motion, helping students calculate how quickly an object travels while distinguishing the total path covered from its change in position. Set within the Texas Science 7 topic of Motion and Thermal Energy, this resource uses straight-line journeys and out-and-back examples to show why an object can travel a measurable distance yet finish with zero net displacement.

Calculate speed and explain the journey

Students apply the relationship average speed = total distance ÷ total elapsed time to measured motion scenarios. They practise selecting appropriate units, including meters per second (m/s) and kilometers per hour (km/h), and use distance and time data to compare motion between trials. Numerical examples, such as a scooter travelling a known distance over a stated time, give students opportunities to calculate average speed and include the correct unit in their answers.

The worksheet also develops a precise understanding of distance, displacement, speed, and velocity. Distance accounts for the entire path travelled, whereas displacement describes the change from the starting position to the ending position and includes direction. Students analyse journeys involving movement east and west, including trips that return to their starting point. These examples clarify why an out-and-back journey can have a nonzero average speed but zero net displacement, and why velocity provides directional information that speed does not.

Apply the concepts in different ways

A reading passage introduces the calculations and terminology before students work through multiple-choice questions, correct-or-incorrect statements, short-answer calculations and explanations, matching pairs, a cloze exercise, an extended-response scenario, and a Did You Know feature. Tasks ask students to calculate average speed, identify the measurements needed for the calculation, choose suitable units, determine total distance, explain net displacement, and distinguish speed from velocity.

The extended response brings these ideas together through a student's walk to a tree and back to the classroom. Students must explain the total distance, elapsed time, average speed, and net displacement of the complete journey rather than treating each leg as the entire trip.

Four resources for teaching and review

• ✔️ Student worksheet: Reading, calculation, concept-checking, and written-reasoning tasks focused on average speed and directed motion.
• ✔️ Separate answer key PDF: Helps teachers check calculations and review students' explanations.
• ✔️ Student Notes & Lesson Summary: Provides a companion resource for revisiting the key concepts and terminology.
• ✔️ Separate teacher guide PDF: Includes Learning Objectives, Teaching Tips, Discussion Questions, and Common Mistakes.

Practical classroom use

Use this average speed practice worksheet during a Grade 7 motion lesson, after a classroom activity involving distance and elapsed time, or as independent practice and topic review. The notes support revision, while the teacher guide helps structure discussion around common misconceptions, particularly the belief that travelling a nonzero distance must produce a nonzero displacement.

For teachers working within a TEKS Science course, this resource connects straightforward calculations with conceptual reasoning. Students practise using numerical evidence, reporting units correctly, and explaining how direction affects displacement without changing the total distance already travelled.