Exploring Newton's Laws in The Solar System
Resource ID#: 75602
Primary Type: Lesson Plan
This document was generated on CPALMS - www.cpalms.org
In this lesson, students review the conceptual basics of Newton's three laws, then use those concepts to create models and drawings to represent
the Newtonian interactions between the Sun, Earth, and the Moon.
Subject(s): Science
Grade Level(s): 9, 10, 11, 12
Intended Audience: Educators
Suggested Technology: Computer for Presenter,
Basic Calculators, Overhead Projector, Microsoft Office
Instructional Time: 1 Hour(s) 20 Minute(s)
Resource supports reading in content area: Yes
Freely Available: Yes
Keywords: newton's laws, acceleration, universal gravitation, gravitation, planets, solar system, moon, earth, sun,
Instructional Component Type(s): Lesson Plan,
newton, orbit, orbits, force, forces, physics, space, newtonian, mechanics
Worksheet, Presentation/Slideshow, Teaching Idea,
Formative Assessment, Model Eliciting Activity (MEA)
STEM Lesson
Resource Collection: FCR-STEMLearn Earth Systems
LESSON CONTENT
Lesson Plan Template: Learning Cycle (5E Model)
Learning Objectives: What will students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson?
Students will model, both physically and on paper, the way each of Newton's three laws affects the motion of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
Prior Knowledge: What prior knowledge should students have for this lesson?
Prior to learning this lesson, students should have been exposed to the concepts behind each of Newton's three laws before. Specifically, for each of the three laws,
students should have already been exposed to the following:
Newton's First Law: An object which is not acted on by a net force will travel in a straight line at a constant velocity (no acceleration).
Newton's Second Law: The acceleration an object experiences is directly proportional to the net force applied to it and inversely proportional to its mass. Students
should be able to algebraically manipulate and utilize the formula F=ma, although this lesson could be modified to exclude mathematics entirely.
Newton's Third Law: For every action force, there is an equal and opposite reaction force.
Additionally, an understanding of the concept of acceleration is required. Students should understand that acceleration is a change in velocity over time and that
velocity includes both magnitude and direction. Therefore, when an object is changing speed, direction, or both, that object is undergoing an acceleration.
Finally, students need to know the concept of universal gravitation (but not necessarily how to compute the gravitational force between two objects). They need to
know that all objects with mass mutually attract one another gravitationally.
All of the above is reviewed in the beginning of the lesson, but this lesson is not intended to teach those concepts for the first time. This lesson focuses only on relating
Newton's laws to the motion of bodies in our star system.
Guiding Questions: What are the guiding questions for this lesson?
How do each of Newton's three laws explain the interactions between the Earth and Moon? What about the Earth and Sun?
Engage: What object, event, or questions will the teacher use to trigger the students' curiosity and engage them in the concepts?
To begin the lesson, the instructor will review Newton's Laws and the concept of universal gravitation by using the attached slideshow presentation. This presentation
includes ample opportunities for classroom discussion. It is recommended that the instructor conducts the review interactively, calling on students and also
encouraging classroom discussion and even debate. Every teacher has his own style for content delivery and review, but student engagement is key in this portion of
page 1 of 4 the lesson. Formative assessment questions are included throughout the presentation in order to keep the lesson more interactive.
Review Slideshow (PDF, recommended)
Review Slideshow (pptx, not recommended)
Review Slideshow Answer Key (PDF)
Explore: What will the students do to explore the concepts and skills being developed through the lesson?
Students will be given materials with which to model the interactions of celestial bodies based on Newton's laws, guided by the attached worksheet. At this point in the
lesson, students should have a good handle on Newton's laws themselves as well as the concept of universal gravitation; the purpose of this portion of the lesson is to
get students thinking about how those laws actually apply to planetary, solar, and lunar motion without explicitly telling them.
Students should be placed into small groups of heterogeneous ability levels and given the following materials:
Worksheet
Rubber bands
Spherical balls of at least three different sizes
Markers/crayons
Printer paper
String
Tape
Scissors
Students should be instructed to read and complete the activity described on the worksheet. Ideas should not be given to students on how to complete the activity until
sufficient time for student creativity has been given. Students will come up with varying models, drawings, and explanations. There are many possible correct
answers, so as students work, the instructor should serve to encourage students and make sure they are on track. Students will invariably ask if their answers are the
right ones, but the instructor should simply reply by asking questions of the students in order to help them refine their ideas.
Students will often draw unlabeled pictures, create models without explanations, etc. The instructor should attempt to engage students in critical thinking as much as
possible and set standards as high as is reasonably possible. No matter how detailed a group's work is, it can always be taken to another level. For example, if
students connect two balls with a rubber band and explain that the Sun is the large ball and the Earth is the small ball, and the rubber band represents the
gravitational force, the teacher could ask the students what is imperfect about their model. Some possible answers in this example would be the fact that the Sun is
actually much larger than the Earth, so the model is not to scale. Additionally, extremely high-level students might recognize that the rubber band's force gets stronger
as the planets are pulled apart, whereas the gravitational force actually gets weaker with increasing distance.
This portion of the lesson can be graded or ungraded. The critical element to this phase is teacher-student interaction in small groups. The teacher should circulate
the room at all times, observing and facilitating group discussions. Groups should not be allowed to go too far astray, but they should not be fed answers either. Since
the teacher will be in constant contact with all groups, grading the worksheet may not be necessary to motivate students to work.
Worksheet (PDF)
Worksheet (docx)
Explain: What will the students and teacher do so students have opportunities to clarify their ideas, reach a conclusion or
generalization, and communicate what they know to others?
After the exploratory activity is completed, students should be seated individually again. The instructor will utilize the attached slideshow presentation to lead a
classroom discussion about the ideas generated during the activity. The purpose of this presentation and discussion is to ensure that students have successfully and
accurately connected Newton's laws to gravitationally induced celestial motion. Formative assessment questions are built in to the presentation with distracting
answers to help the instructor identify common misconceptions which may be present in the classroom.
Explain Slideshow (PDF, recommended)
Explain Slideshow (pptx, not recommended)
Explain Slideshow Answer Key (PDF)
Elaborate: What will the students do to apply their conceptual understanding and skills to solve a problem, make a decision,
perform a task, or make sense of new knowledge?
At this point in the lesson, most students' understanding should be fully formed. In order to ensure that all students have mastery of the standard while also providing
an opportunity for advanced students to engage in critical thinking, the following question can be used as an exit slip question:
"If all gravitational forces suddenly ceased to exist, how would the Sun, Earth, and Moon move?"
The instructor can provide each student with a sticky note during the last 5 minutes of class and instruct them to answer the question on that sticky note and stick it on
the whiteboard on their way out the door. This will allow the instructor to identify students who are still struggling after completion of the lesson.
Summative Assessment
A quiz is provided as an attachment. The quiz should be given as a graded assignment after the entire lesson has been taught and formative assessments have
indicated significant learning from a majority of the class.
Quiz (PDF)
Quiz (docx)
Quiz Key (PDF)
Formative Assessment
This lesson begins with a detailed review of Newton's three laws. Students' conceptual understanding of these three laws is crucial to the effectiveness of the lesson
as a whole, as the lesson primarily serves to relate those three laws to the motion of celestial bodies.
In the slideshow-based review of this lesson, a gauge of student understanding of Newton's three laws must be taken. In the attached slideshow presentation
(found in the Explain phase), formative assessment questions are included along the way. These questions are intended to be answered by each student in the
classroom individually.
page 2 of 4 The precise implementation of this assessment is up to the teacher and may depend on available technology, but the method chosen should provide the instructor with
immediate feedback on student understanding so that remediation can be continued as necessary. This formative assessment should be quick and ungraded. The ideal
implementation of these questions would be to use a "clicker" response system and to graph the (anonymous) results of each question on the projector screen for all
to see. If such a response system is not available, a simpler alternative may be substituted. For example, students could write their answers on individual whiteboards
and hold them up toward the teacher upon request. The higher the anonymity of the method, the less the integrity of the results are compromised by peer pressure.
During the activity component of this lesson, formative assessment can be less formal. The instructor can simply observe students working in groups, ensuring
that discussions are on-topic. If a misguided discussion is heard, the instructor should ask guiding questions of the students to lead them back on track. There are no
specific questions which need to be asked of every group, and this portion of the lesson takes some level of intuition on the instructor's part, but the overall goal is to
ensure that students are getting something meaningful out of the activity. The instructor should circulate the room and act as a facilitator. In the event of a common
misconception propagating the entire classroom, the instructor should get the class's attention momentarily and explain that specific issue briefly.
Finally, the end of the lesson is a slideshow-based lecture/discussion with formative assessment questions embedded throughout. The same techniques used in the
beginning of the lesson (e.g. clickers) may be used for this section's ungraded formative assessment questions. Sometimes, students will have lost their motivation by
this point in the lesson, so a good way to preface these questions is to remind students that these questions are for their benefit and similar questions will appear on
the quiz/test. It is better for students to make mistakes at this point than on the summative assessment, and sometimes students need to be reminded of that fact.
Feedback to Students
During the lectures, students receive immediate feedback on their formative assessment questions. In order for students to be able to use this feedback, time for
student questions and discussion must be allowed. An intellectually safe and open classroom environment is crucial to the effectiveness of these discussions. The
answers to the formative assessment questions should not be left unexplained.
During the activity, feedback to students is given orally to small groups by the instructor as necessary. Students can immediately use this feedback to tweak their
answers to activity questions.
ACCOMMODATIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
Accommodations:
This lesson is designed to differentiate for auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners. Auditory learners will benefit most from the lectures and classroom
discussions and kinesthetic learners will benefit most from the activity. Ways to accommodate visual learners include drawing in the whiteboard or showing models
while delivering the presentations and also encouraging student drawing of explanations during the activity. It is strongly recommended that the instructor draw on the
whiteboard or smartboard while using the slideshow presentations.
Using visual models can also assist English language learners, who may only be able to understand the presentations visually. An additional way to assist English
language learners is to place them in a group with a bilingual student if one is available.
Extensions:
To extend this lesson, an instructor could cover at least two additional, related topics:
For a physics teacher, this lesson would be an excellent segue into a more detailed lesson on universal gravitation. The instructor could give a lecture on universal
gravitation, including the quantitative component and a detailed calculation of the gravitational force between any two objects. After delivering that content, the
instructor could revisit this lesson and have students calculate the forces between the Sun and Earth or the Earth and Moon using the law of universal gravitation.
For a teacher focused more on Earth/space science, this lesson could be extended to include Kepler's laws of planetary motion, thereby satisfying all of standard
SC.912.E.5.6 rather than just a part of it.
Suggested Technology: Computer for Presenter, Basic Calculators, Overhead Projector, Microsoft Office
Special Materials Needed:
Worksheets should be printed ahead of time, and all materials for the activity will be needed, including:
Rubber bands
Spherical balls of at least three different sizes
Markers/crayons
Printer paper
String
Tape
Scissors
Further Recommendations:
The documents included in this resource were created in LibreOffice, a free and open source alternative to Microsoft Office. PDF versions have been included along
with source files in Microsoft Office formats (docx, pptx) to ensure compatibility. If the instructor intends to modify the source files, Microsoft Office will work, but
LibreOffice is recommended. LibreOffice can be downloaded free of charge for Linux, Windows, and Mac here.
Additional Information/Instructions
By Author/Submitter
This lesson covers only Newton's laws as they apply to standard SC.912.E.5.6. Kepler's laws are not addressed in this lesson.
page 3 of 4 SOURCE AND ACCESS INFORMATION
Contributed by: Steven Keys
Name of Author/Source: Steven Keys
District/Organization of Contributor(s): Seminole
Is this Resource freely Available? Yes
Access Privileges: Public
License: Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported
Related Standards
Name
Description
Develop logical connections through physical principles, including Kepler's and Newton's Laws about the relationships and
the effects of Earth, Moon, and Sun on each other.
SC.912.E.5.6:
Remarks/Examples:
Explain that Kepler’ s laws determine the orbits of objects in the solar system and recognize that Kepler’ s laws are
a direct consequence of Newton’ s Law of Universal Gravitation and Laws of Motion.
page 4 of 4