Physical Science: Forces & Motion Unit Plan Daily Agenda
Science
Content Area:
Unit Plan Title: Physical Science: Forces & Motion
Overview of Unit
Grade(s)
7
Students will study forces and motion while reviewing Newton’s Laws of Motion.
An object is in motion when its position is changing. The speed of an object is defined by how far it travels divided by
the amount of time it took to travel that far.
Forces have magnitude and direction. Forces can be added. The net force on an object is the sum of all the forces
acting on the object. An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion
at constant velocity will continue at the same velocity unless acted on by an unbalanced force. Whenever one object
exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts and equal and opposite force on the first, i.e.,
momentum. (Newton’s Laws)
When energy is transferred from one system to another, the quantity of energy before transfer equals the quantity
of energy after transfer. As an object falls, its potential energy decreases as its speed, and consequently its kinetic
energy, increases. While an object is falling, some of the object’s kinetic energy is transferred to the medium through
which it falls, setting the medium into motion and heating it.
A tiny fraction of the light energy from the Sun reaches Earth. Light energy from the Sun is Earth’s primary source of
energy, heating Earth surfaces and providing the energy that results in wind, ocean currents, and storms. Energy is
transferred from place to place. Light energy can be thought of as traveling in rays. Thermal energy travels via
conduction and convection. Nuclear reactions take place in the Sun. In plants, light energy from the Sun is transferred
to oxygen and carbon compounds, which in combination, have chemical potential energy (photosynthesis). (Energy
flow and conversions—ex. solar to chemical in a plant; solar to chemical to electrical in a fuel cell car )
Essential Question(s) and Enduring Understandings (in grade appropriate terminology).
1. How is motion calculated?
Motion is calculated by measuring the distance traveled by an object divided by the time taken to travel the
distance. Using mathematical formulas motion can be understood, ex. speed = distance/time; force= mass x
acceleration; and slope=rise/run to find average speed=change in distance/time.
2. How is motion expressed in our daily lives?
Newton’s Laws of Motion include:
1st: Object at rest remains at rest and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight
line unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
2nd: The acceleration of an object depends on the mass of the object and the amount of force applied.
3rd : Whenever one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts and equal and opposite
force on the first.
An object is in motion when its position is changing. Examine through experimentation how objects at rest or in
motion remain that way until another unbalanced forces acts upon the object, for example: courtship behaviors,
battering rams. Predict changes that might occur while experimenting with motion.
3. How do balanced forces and unbalanced forces affect motion?
An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion at constant
velocity will continue at the same velocity unless acted on by an unbalanced force (Newton’s Laws). Research how
balanced forces in nature affect motion, looking at inertia in animal life and mechanical objects, ex. bigger
animals = greater force, greater the speed and greater mass will cause differing motions.
4. How can a force change the motion for a position of something?
Forces have magnitude and direction. The net force on an object is the sum of all the forces acting on the object.
Momentum carries over equaling opposing forces. Forces that may affect change in motion might include gravity,
friction, thrust, and lift (Bernoulli’s Principle).
5. What is energy?
Energy which takes many forms is the ability to do work & cause change. Types of energy that are associated with
the motion of mass are called kinetic energy, while types of energy associated with the position of mass and with
energy fields are called potential energy. Energy can be renewable or non-renewable.
6. What are the different forms and uses of energy and what happens when it is transferred?
Differentiate between mechanical (motion and interaction), solar (energy from the sun), chemical (energy
released during chemical reactions), thermal (motion of moving particles), electric (currents), light
(radiant/electromagnetic waves), and nuclear (nucleus stored) energy. Analyze how one form of energy is
transferred into another as chemical bonds change, as position/conditions change, and as movement occurs
(kinetic to potential).
7. How do potential and kinetic energy impact everyday life?
Examine how light energy from the sun is transformed from nuclear energy to light energy, looking at the sun as
an imperative source for light and heat on the Earth. The potential energy from the sun reacting when Hydrogen
atoms fuse together to create Helium atoms releasing nuclear energy which change to light which is changed in to
chemical energy. In plants, light energy from the Sun is transferred to oxygen and carbon compounds, which in
combination, have chemical potential energy (photosynthesis). Analyze how kinetic thermal energy travels by
conduction and convection heating Earth surfaces and providing the energy that results in wind, ocean currents,
and storms while transferring energy from item to item (living and non living).
Content Statements and CPI
Standards Specific to this Unit of Study
-Forms of Energy (sun’s energy as primary source: 5.2.8.C.1, technologies used to capture solar energy: 5.2.8.C.2)
-Energy Transfer and Conservation(kinetic and potential energy: 5.2.8.D.1, flow of energy from the sun: 5.2.8.D.2)
-Forces and Motion (calculating speed: 5.2.8.E.1, balanced and unbalanced force: 5.2.8.E.2 )
Content: A tiny fraction of the light energy from the Sun reaches Earth. Light energy from the Sun is Earth’s primary
source of energy, heating Earth surfaces and providing the energy that results in wind.
5.2.8.C.1 : Structure evidence to explain the relatively high frequency of tornadoes in “Tornado Alley.”
Content: Energy is transferred from place to place. Light energy can be thought of as traveling in rays. Thermal energy
travels via conduction and convection.
5.2.8.C.2: Model and explain current technologies used to capture solar energy for the purposes of converting it to
electrical energy.
Content: When energy is transferred from one system to another, the quantity of energy before transfer equals the
quantity of energy after transfer. As an object falls, its potential energy decreases as its speed, and consequently its
kinetic energy, increases. While an object is falling, some of the object’s kinetic energy is transferred to the medium
through which it falls, setting the medium into motion and heating it.
5.2.8.D.1: Relate the kinetic and potential energies of a roller coaster at various points on its path.
Content: Nuclear reactions take place in the Sun.
In plants, light energy from the Sun is transferred to oxygen and carbon compounds, which in combination, have chemical
potential energy (photosynthesis).
5.2.8.D.2:
Content: An object is in motion when its position is changing. The speed of an object is defined by how far it travels divided
by the amount of time it took to travel that far.
5.2.8.E.1: Calculate the speed of an object when given distance and time.
Content: Forces have magnitude and direction. Forces can be added. The net force on an object is the sum of all the forces
acting on the object. An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion at
constant velocity will continue at the same velocity unless acted on by an unbalanced force.
5.2.8.E.2: Compare the motion of an object acted on by balanced forces with the motion of an object acted on by
unbalanced forces in a given specific scenario.
Standards Carried Throughout the Year
Content: Core scientific concepts and principles represent the conceptual basis for model-building and facilitate the
generation of new and productive questions.
5.1.8.A.1: Demonstrate understanding and use interrelationships among central scientific concepts to revise explanations
and to consider alternative explanations.
Content: Results of observation and measurement can be used to build conceptual-based models and to search for core
explanations.
5.1.8.A.2: Use mathematical, physical, and computational tools to build conceptual-based models and to pose theories.
Content: Predictions and explanations are revised based on systematic observations, accurate measurements, and
structured data/evidence.
5.1.8.A.3: Use scientific principles and models to frame and synthesize scientific arguments and pose theories.
Content: Evidence is generated and evaluated as part of building and refining models and explanations.
5.1.8.B.1: Design investigations and use scientific instrumentation to collect, analyze, and evaluate evidence as part of
building and revising models and explanations.
Content: Mathematics and technology are used to gather, analyze, and communicate results.
5.1.8.B.2: Gather, evaluate, and represent evidence using scientific tools, technologies, and computational strategies.
Content: Carefully collected evidence is used to construct and defend arguments.
5.1.8.B.3: Use qualitative and quantitative evidence to develop evidence-based arguments.
Content: Scientific reasoning is used to support scientific conclusions.
5.1.8.B.4: Use quality controls to examine data sets and to examine evidence as a means of generating and reviewing
explanations.
Content: Scientific models and understandings of fundamental concepts and principles are refined as new evidence is
considered.
5.1.8.C.1: Monitor one’s own thinking as understandings of scientific concepts are refined.
Content: Predictions and explanations are revised to account more completely for available evidence.
5.1.8.C.2: Revise predictions or explanations on the basis of discovering new evidence, learning new information, or using
models.
Content: Science is a practice in which an established body of knowledge is continually revised, refined, and extended.
5.1.8.C.3: Generate new and productive questions to evaluate and refine core explanations.
Content: Science involves practicing productive social interactions with peers, such as partner talk, whole-group discussions,
and small-group work.
5.1.8.D.1: Engage in multiple forms of discussion in order to process, make sense of, and learn from others’ ideas,
observations, and experiences.
Content: In order to determine which arguments and explanations are most persuasive, communities of learners work
collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories (e.g., argumentation,
representation, visualization, etc.).
5.1.8.D.2: Engage in productive scientific discussion practices during conversations with peers, both face-to-face and
virtually, in the context of scientific investigations and model-building.
Content: Instruments of measurement can be used to safely gather accurate information for making scientific comparisons
of objects and events.
5.1.8.D.3: Demonstrate how to safely use tools, instruments, and supplies.
Student Learning Targets/Objectives: should be connected to content statements. Students will be able to:
e.g.: 1- Articulate predictions and imagine ways to test those predictions, using practice gained through class explorations of
water quality in the school pond and water supply.
1. Graph information relating to speed (distance/time), force (mass x acceleration) and slope
(rise/run) to form conclusions related to forces and motion.
2. Demonstrate and evaluate Newton’s Laws of Motion through experimentation with position,
acceleration, and motion (speed, constant motion car, inertia coin activity, eggs, spring
luggage scale, bowling ball/pins, …). Discern how changes can affect the energy and
momentum of an object.
3. Predict changes that might occur while experimenting with motion (marbles, parachute, and
cars).
4. Examine how unbalanced forces affect motion i.e, hand ball/target experiment, ping pong
ball/slingshot exp., angle/velocity game, cars, smaller / larger animals impacting each other
(bigger animals = greater force, greater the speed and greater mass will cause differing motions).
5. Chart and examine weather patterns and how they are affected by different forms of energy.
Discover how tornadoes form when hot air, cold air and jet stream motion cause air to circle
and move very rapidly upward causing destruction.
6. Compare and contrast the forces that may affect change in motion including gravity, friction,
thrust, and lift (Bernoulli’s Principle) with air movement activities including paper airplane
construction and varieties.
7. Examine the different forms of energy and how they are visible in the world around us
through the study of wind, ocean currents, animal behavior, and cars, etc.
8. Evaluate knowledge of forces and motion and create a culminating project to prove your
understandings of motion, force, momentum and energy.
Strategies/Justifications
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Note-booking will help students clarify their own thinking, identify weaknesses and document progress.
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Classifying will help students focus on how scientists organize information into frameworks and model thinking patterns.
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Marshaling evidence will help students organize their thoughts for persuasive and analytical writing.
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Predicting how pieces of evidence fit into a larger schema will help students become aware of and alert to “big picture”
thinking.
Explaining and justifying classifications of organisms will help them interact with the vocabulary and facts of organismal
structures and functions and improve retention of these details.
Preparing a culminating project with a team will enable students to become experts in an area, and to teach other students,
thus promoting long-term retention, and increasing experience in articulating ideas clearly to an audience.
Engaging in a variety of learning formats is encouraged as part of student learning experiences, i.e., cooperative learning
groups (paired, group sharing, whole class) or independent student experience.
Daily Activities, Lessons, and Assessments
Time Frame
How do you get there from here? – txt pg. 9, Reading Essentials (Chap1/Lesson 1) –
Describing Motion …McGraw Hill. Examine position and reference point using
maps to evaluate distance and direction, including how it is used in technology –
GPS, cell phones, google maps. (Interdisciplinary: reinforcement of map skills in
social studies) Use article “Running Elephants?”
http://animal.discovery.com/news/briefs/20030407/elephant.html
Day 1-2
Use a line graph to visualize – Time/Distance = Speed examining Slope (changes)
Motion and Forces (McGraw Hill/Glencoe) pg. 20 and Reading Essentials
(Chap1/Lesson 2)
Predict how long it will take to move further. Draw conclusions off the graph.
Calculate speed by measuring distance over time using constant motion cars and
marbles. V = d/t.
Position (location …what takes to get….),
Motion (changes position…)
(ties in math)
How wind moves including direction:
http://www.tryscience.org/experiments/experiments_windbubbles_athome.html
Can drop parachute with it crumpled and have them measure the mass of the
parachute before and after crumpling.
Use parachute to show this Dropping lighter and heavier objects from a height.
Inertia –1st - coin in a cup – coin remains at rest, so when the card is removed
quickly, there is not enough friction to move the coin. So the coin falls into the
cup when the card it removed, magic thread – mass tends to stay at rest – a
gentle pull exerts a small force over a longer time and moves the mass, but a
hard pull breaks the thread before the mass moves. 2nd - hard-boiled egg vs. raw
egg – liquid in raw egg sloshes and doesn’t spin smoothly like the hard-boiled
egg,
Acceleration (changes in speed is acceleration)
Force (Newton’s 2nd law) f=ma
Speed = distance/ time, no speed change = no force
Spring scales – including luggage scale – to model newton’s laws of motion.
Forces of gravity
http://www.tryscience.org/experiments/experiments_gravity_athome.html
Relative forces – for example Swim bladder in a fish – inflates and deflates to
help the fish raise and lower in the water to relate life science
Examine Bernoulli’s principle through the creation and use of paper
airplanes. How does the design change the balance of forces on the paper
airplane? How can we increase lift, thrust while decreasing drag and the
effect of gravity?
Steve Spangler Science – wind bags – intro activity
http://www.tryscience.org/experiments/experiments_nosedive_athome.html
http://www.tryscience.org/experiments/experiments_wingit_athome.html
Bowling ball and pins
Momentum:
Videos of collisions, baseball and cars—experience not calculation
Unbalanced forces on an object in Motion – using Angry birds—monkeys online game
and billiard balls to demonstrate how they can affect the velocity of a moving object.
http://www.tryscience.org/experiments/experiments_usopen_athome.html
Game to show angle and velocity effects. Have them change one variable at a time to
achieve their goal. Predict how a greater or lesser angle than 45 degrees will affect the
results. Predict how a greater or less velocity will affect the results.
http://www.mathplayground.com/ProjectTRIG/ProjectTRIGPreloader.html
vs. actually ping pong ball with sling shot – half class does virtual / half does actual
simulation – compare results and discuss friction
Newton’s Third Law of Motion – rocket ship with balloon
http://www.tryscience.org/experiments/experiments_ballooncar_athome.html pullback car using latex free rubber bands
Tug of war
Impact of objects from a collision – comets or craters impacting earth and
ecosystems
http://www.tryscience.org/experiments/experiments_comet_athome.html
Bumper cars
Energy (What is energy - ability to apply force) …(potential / kinetic)
potential…position/gravity, kinetic/motion
Work
Type of Energy
Sound energy – create a drum
Electrical energy – electrical outlets
Light energy – microwaves
Nuclear energy – sun
Transformation of energy
Focus on kinetic and potential energy
First drop a book – makes a louder sound but doesn’t bounce
Ball drops – makes a sound but also bounces
Activity with a ball
Mass affects the force required to accelerate an object – using object of differing mass –
compare and contrast the amount of force used to accelerate each object.
http://gokids.com.au/collide-a-ball-discover-potential-and-kinetic-energy
Action and reaction forces – swimming, jumping, rockets.
Origami frogs to show potential to kinetic energy
http://science-mattersblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/potential-kinetic-energy-jumpingfrogs.html
Family Science experiment w/ balls
Using weather maps and meteorologist info from weather.com or tv news reports
discover how tornadoes form when hot air, cold air and jet stream motion cause air to
circle and move very rapidly upward causing destruction.
Compare work and how it relates to energy
Article on apes and low use of energy
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100803112821.htm
Particles in an iced cube vibrate in fixed positions and do not have a lot of
kinetic energy, particles of water in a lake can move more freely and have
more kinetic energy than water particles in ice do, the particles of water in
steam move rapidly, so they have more energy than the particles in liquid
water do. Shows how energy from sun is transferred.
Suggested Supplemental Activities:
Billiard ball
Former 8th grade activities:
Egg drop – slow it down or cushion it to absorb impact - decrease force by
increasing stopping time / increase friction to decrease velocity
Create a powerpoint or Model and explain current technologies used to capture solar energy for
the purposes of converting it to electrical energy.
Culminating activity/assessment - Mini-golf physics – build and design a golf course
using a marble for the ball and a golf club out of cardboard. Testing affect of motion
on golf ball – speed/velocity, force, friction, inertia (Newton’s laws of motion),
kinetic and potential energy, and gravity
Roller coaster – design your own
Egg in remote control car – crashing into the wall
http://www.tryscience.org/experiments/experiments_begin.html?newtonse
ggs – show seatbelt safety and airbags
Describe the flow of energy from the Sun to the fuel tank of an automobile.
Resources that need to be ordered or located.
Class sets
Constant motion cars
Meter sticks
Stop watches
Batteries
Rulers
Marbles with tracks
Dominoes
Non-latex rubber bands
Computer links:
Technology to be integrated (tools, equipment, software, and online learning)
Turning Point System
Projector connected to computer
Elmo and Lady Bug Projection Devises
Power Point Multimedia Application
Internet Connectivity
Skype with Web-Cam