Title: Micro Golf
Herron’s Level of Inquiry: 2-3
Concept or Topic: Newton’s Laws
Description of Activity: Students built a mini-golf hole for a marble (hit with a craft stick),
with the restriction that the hole can be as difficult as they want, but they must be able
to complete it in 3 strokes.
Cooperative Learning Groups: Students are in groups of three with the following job
descriptions:
Architect – responsible for the design of the micro-golf hole (decide on theme, gather
supplies and assemble them, create a sketch)
Caddy - calculate the distance to the hole in centimeters and determine par and the
best way to play the hole
Greenskeeper-responsible for keeping things in order and clean up
Students are normally seated in groups of 6 (3 tables of 2) I allowed them to determine
how they divided their tables into 2 groups of 3. I try to have 3 girls and 3 boys at each
grouping of 6. Some groups ended up with 3 girls and 3 boys. Other groups had 2 girls
and 1 boy or 2 boys and 1 girl. I also had 1 group of 4. I don’t usually allow students to
pick their own group, but since this was a new activity for me, I let them pick within
their table of 6 as a compromise. Plus the fact that it was one less thing for me to do.
I explained to the groups that even though they were the “architect” they could help
with the other jobs, they would just be responsible for making sure their part of the
work was done. The same went for the caddy and the greenskeeper.
The students ended up doing a little bit of everything. They did a great job with their
roles. The students loved the activity which was designed to be an introduction to
Newton’s Laws. The students recorded how many strokes it took them for each hole as
they played each others. This week we will calculate mean, median, and mode using
their numbers. So far the activity has been a huge success. I definitely will incorporate
this into next years curriculum. One difficult aspect was the fact that the groups
couldn’t leave their hole up since the next class was coming in and doing the same thing.
The taking down of the hole took about 3 minutes; however, the putting it back up the
next day took about 20 minutes. That left them with only about 20 minutes to play each
others holes.
State Standards:
NS1.7.1 – Interpret evidence based on observations
NS1.7.3 – Interpret scientific data using mean, median, mode, range
PS6.7.1 – Compare and contrast Newton’s 3 laws of motion
PS6.7.2 – Conduct investigations demonstrating Newton’s first law
PS6.7.3 – Demonstrate Newton’s second law
PS6.7.4 – Conduct investigations of Newton’s third law
PS6.7.5 – Explain how Newton’s 3 laws apply to real world situations
PS6.7.6 – Investigate careers related to laws of motion
NO2.7.4 – Model and develop integer operations
NO3.7.1 – Compute with integers using real world situations to solve problems
M13.7.2 – Draw and measure distance
DAP14.7.1 – Identify ways of selecting samples and composing appropriate questions
DAP14.7.2 – Explain which types of display are appropriate for data sets
DAP15.7.2 – Analyze a set of data by using and comparing central tendencies
Materials:
Marbles (1 per group)
Film canisters or plastic beakers
Masking tape
Wood blocks, scraps, dowels, etc.
Plastic tubes or rods
Different substrates (e.g. felt, sandpaper, foam sheets)
Prerequisite Skills: Some knowledge of force, velocity, and the basic concepts behind
Newton’s laws.
Key Questions: What makes a mini-golf course fun? How can people who design golf
courses decide what should be “par” on a particular hole? How many different
elements of physics can be introduced in designing a golf course?
Management Suggestions: Group size should be around 3, allowing for all students to be
involved but hopefully enough people on each team for everything to get done.
Procedure: After briefly going over force, acceleration, and force as something that has
a direction and not just a magnitude (as well as preferably reviewing some of the related
concepts such as kinetic and potential energy), the students will be told that they are
designing a miniature mini-golf hole. They will spend the first day (or the part that
remains after an explanation of force) planning out their hole (and will be allowed to
bring in other materials and decorations if they want them). They will also come up
with a name for it. They can draw things out but not start to build them yet. On the
second day, they will begin building their golf hole, with the restriction that their hole
must be completable in 3 strokes (when hitting the marble with a craft stick, trying to
reach the hole, which will be a beaker or film canister taped to the edge of the table).
On the third day, they will rebuild their golf holes in the first 10 minutes, then spend the
rest of the period playing each other’s golf holes. So each student should get a chance
to complete 9 holes, for which they will each keep score on the included score card.
Either during the same class period or at a later time, depending on how long it takes to
play the golf holes, the class will calculate and plot the mean, median, and mode score
for different golf holes and compare them.
Discussion & Follow-Up Activities: During the follow-up, the students will calculate the
central tendency of the data for how difficult different holes are, and make comparisons
about which holes were the hardest to play, as well as which had the highest variability
for how many strokes they took. The class can talk about how they would determine
par for different golf holes.
MicroGolf Hole Report
Name of Golf Hole:_______________________
Estimate of Par:___
Player #
Score
Scores in Ascending Order
Total:
Mean Score:_____ (Total Scores / # of Players)
Median Score:_____ (Center Score When Scores are in Order)
Mode Score:_____ (Score that was Achieved the Most # of Times)
What would you choose for par for your hole now? _____ Why?