Force and Motion

Let's get rolling with some FORCE and MOTION! 

      Okay. I’ll admit it. This used to be one of my least favorite units to teach. Not because it wasn’t interesting, but I just wasn’t sure how to convey the concepts to my kids. 

     Let’s face it. Body systems are pretty easy because you can physically feel your bones and muscles at work. It’s something the kids can relate to because they use their bodies everyday (we hope). It's a little more tricky to explain Newton's Laws of Force and Motion or how gravity pulls everything toward the Earth. Truthfully, maybe I was being a little too OCD and over-thinking the whole thing because I quickly discovered a host of fun teaching possibilities.

      I went crazy searching for every lesson, activity, and website that I could find. I even got creative and made up some of my own! Check out my favorites… 

Actions & Reactions

Materials:

·      1 recording sheet per student

·      4-5 gallon Ziploc bags with (1 each) of the following: small car/hot wheel, empty thread spool, marble, tape measure, stop watch, small ramp(they can use a textbook instead if necessary) and a random round object (I used cotton balls or pom-poms)

·      A stack of textbooks (2-4 per group)

Procedure:

  1.     Give each student a recording sheet and read the instructions together.

  2.    Discuss the students hypotheses about which objects will travel farther/faster, why they think so, etc.

  3.    Divide your students into small groups of 3-4 students.

  4.  Each group should receive one Ziploc bag of materials to complete the experiment.

  5.   Review the instructions one last time and remind students to use quiet voices so all the groups can focus. Students should use force to see how far/fast each object travels. They should record their data on the recording sheet. Then students should experiment building ramps to change the rate of speed or distance each object travels. This experiment should introduce students to the concepts of Newton’s Laws of Motion.

Ramping It Up

    Here's a fun little video clip to use as a hook for a force and motion lesson:

If you like that video, then you may want to check out these too:

(This is the shorter, more basic version)

 (This is the FULL episode, which has a little more in-depth concepts)

Force and Motion Interactive Games
(These are simple games that students can play with during center time.
You can choose the age group that applies to your students.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/pushes_pulls.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/forces_movement.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/8_9/friction.shtml

Check back later for more ideas as we travel farther 

into Force and Motion…

Thanks for stopping by,