FUTUREFIT PROJECT NEWTON’S GAMES – THE LAWS OF MOTION HOW TO USE THIS TEACHING GUIDE • Prepare (2-5 minutes): Short opening activities to start class. • information, and to model instructions or activity • Present (5-20 minutes): Deliver new subject material and project Produce (5-30 Minutes): Use this portion of the lesson to allow students to work independently or in small groups on activities and other project • elements. • students to share out any project, research or presentation materials. Participate (5-30 Minutes): Use this portion of the lesson to allow Practice (5-30 minutes): Use this optional portion of the lesson, if desired, to give students homework activities. DAY 1 PREPARE 5 Minutes • • Toss an apple up and catch it in your hand. Ask students: Why does this apple keep falling when I toss it up into the air? (accept reasonable answers) PRESENT 10-15 Minutes • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Ask: Has anyone ever heard of Sir Isaac Newton? Explain: Isaac Newton was a famous scientist who lived a really long time ago. He was born in 1643, which was 375 years ago! He was the first person to explain why objects drop when they are released in the air (drop the apple from the air and allow it to hit the floor or catch it with your other hand). He called the force gravity. He made many other discoveries and inventions. One of the things Newton liked to study was motion. Can anyone explain what motion is? (Accept reasonable answers). Motion is when an object changes its position. Explain: Newton came up with three laws or “rules” about motion. He called them the First Law of Motion, The Second Law of Motion and The Third Law of Motion. We are going to do some fun activities over the next few days to learn about these laws. You will be making a sail boat (show boat example), a straw rocket (show rocket example), and a balloon car (show car example). THEN, you and your friends will make up a game using the projects we make, and you will be teaching the game to the class to play on the last day of the project. But FIRST we need to learn a little bit about each law. So let’s start with the First Law of Motion Place a ball on a table in the front of the classroom. Ask students: Why isn’t the ball moving? (they will likely answer that you have to make it move, it won’t move by itself) Explain: That’s right! Something has to make the ball move. Newton said that if something like a ball is just sitting there, it will just sit there until something makes it move. Ask students: What happens when I push the ball? (they will state the obvious… it moves/rolls). Explain: That’s right! After I push it, it starts moving. Ask: How long will it keep moving? (they may or may not answer that it will keep moving until something stops it) Explain: Newton said that if an object like a ball is moving, it will keep moving until something stops it. It could run into something and stop, or it could slow down because of friction from the floor. If a ball is thrown into the air, gravity will eventually bring it back down and the ground will stop it. Ask: What stopped the ball Explain: Great! You just learned Newton’s First Law of Motion! If an object is resting it will keep resting until something moves it. If an object is moving, it will keep moving until something makes it stop. Sir Isaac Newton Newton’s Games Slides PRODUCE 10-15 Minutes • • Lead students in the Sail Boat Activity to learn about Newton’s First Law of Motion Sail Boat Activity PARTICIPATE 5-10 Minutes • • • • Divide students into groups of 2-3. Allow them to start brainstorming a game to play using any combination of the projects they will be making over the next few days. Use the “Design a Game Instructions” page to explain to the students how they will develop a game with their classmates. They should write down all information the “Newton’s Games” worksheet. Design a Game Instructions Newton’s Games PRACTICE 5 Minutes • Find one example of Newton’s First Law of Motion and be ready to share it with the class tomorrow. DAY 2 PREPARE 5 Minutes • Ask students to share their examples of Newton’s First Law of Motion. PRESENT 10-15 Minutes • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Using one little/lighter toy car and one larger/heavier toy car, demonstrate Newton’s 2nd law of motion. Place the smaller toy car on the table. Explain: We understand that to get this toy car moving, we have to make move. So, if I want the car to move across the table really fast, I can give it a push. Push the ball very, very lightly. Ask: Huh?! What happened? Why didn’t it go really fast like I wanted it to? (Because you pushed to too lightly.) Ask: So you mean that the amount of push I use on the car is important? Push the car again, with more force. Explain: Look at that, you are correct! If I want the car to move quickly, I need to give it a harder push. Explain: Newton talked about that in his Second Law of Motion. He said if you want an object to move with lots of force (which means make it move faster in this case), then you need to give it a big push in the direction you want it to move. Demonstrate that a big push makes it go faster than a smaller push Place the larger car on the table. Ask: What if I give both of these cars the same size push? Will they both go the same speed? (no, you have to give the bigger car a bigger push than the smaller car) Explain: That’s right! If we want them to go the same speed, I will have to push the bigger car harder than the smaller car…demonstrate Explain: Newton also explained that motion depends on how much something weighs, that’s called mass. If an object has more mass (or weight) then we have to give it a bigger push to get it going. Recap: Objects that are moving will move in the direction they are pushed. They will move faster if pushed with more force and slower if they are pushed with less force. Explain: Now we are going to make little straw rockets to demonstrate Newton’s Second Law. PRODUCE 10-15 Minutes • • Lead students in the Straw Rocket Activity to learn about Newton’s Second Law of Motion Straw Rocket Activity PARTICIPATE 5 Minutes • • Allow students to work in their groups to develop the game idea that they started working on the day before. They should write down the information on the “Newton’s Games” page. Newton’s Games PRACTICE 5 Minutes • Find one example of Newton’s Second Law of Motion and be ready to share it with the class tomorrow. DAY 3 PREPARE 5 Minutes • Ask students to share their examples of Newton’s Second Law of Motion PRESENT 5-10 Minutes • • • • • • Review: So far we learned Newton’s First Law of Motion: objects will stay at rest until something moves them and objects in motion will stay in motion until something stops them. We also learned Newton’s Second Law of Motion: if you use a small force to move an object, it will just move a little bit; and if you use a larger force to move an object, it will move more. Explain: Now it’s time to learn Newton’s Third Law of Motion… Blow up the balloon, hold the end with the balloon pointed up and let it go… Ask: How did that balloon to up in the air? (the air going out of the bottom of the balloon forced the balloon to move up, or in the opposite direction.) Explain: Newton’s Third Law of Motion explains that for every action, there is an opposite reaction. That just means that when the air moves out of the bottom of the balloon, it makes the balloon go in the opposite direction as the air. Explain: You are going to make a balloon car to demonstrate Newton’s Third Law of Motion….. PRODUCE 15-20 Minutes • • Lead students in the Balloon Car Activity to learn about Newton’s Third Law of Motion Balloon Car Activity PARTICIPATE 5 Minutes • Allow students to work in their groups to develop the game idea they have been working on. PRACTICE 5 Minutes • • Find one example of Newton’s Third Law of Motion and be ready to share it with the class tomorrow. Bring to class any additional materials needed from home for their Newton Game. DAY 4 PREPARE 5 Minutes • Ask students to share their examples of Newton’s Third Law of Motion. PRESENT 5 Minutes • • In detail, explain to students how you will conduct “Newton’s Games” on the following day. You might consider matching to two groups to share their games with each other, or allowing half of the class to set up stations for the other half of the class to visit PARTICIPATE 30-35 Minutes • • Students should complete the development of their game and complete the written portion of the assignment on the “Newton’s Games” worksheet. Newton’s Games PRACTICE 5 Minutes • Complete the Review Worksheet DAY 5 PREPARE 5 Minutes • • Use the following video to review Newton’s Three Laws of Motion: Newton's 3 Laws of Motion for Kids Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion for Kids PRESENT 5 Minutes • • Give students instructions on how to participate and conduct “Newton’s Games” Newton’s Games PARTICIPATE 5-10 Minutes • Students play “Newton’s Games,” the games they created.
