Guidance

The lab activitity is centered around a pendulum, although most of the links in this section show simulations of a mass on a spring. That's certainly fine for thinking about parts II (the motion graphs) and III (energy) in an oscillating system because the behavior of a pendulum is very similar to the behavior of a mass on a spring.

For part I of the lab activity, thinking about what determines the period of a pendulum, you really need a good simulation of a pendulum. You can search on-line for one. I found one at the Explorelearning site, for instance. Scroll way down the "Motion and Force" list to get to the "Period of a Pendulum" gizmo.