My Science Box

Objective
Given seven drawings depicting motion, students will be able to correctly identify, describe, and indicate direction and relative magnitude of three to five forces in each.

Relationship to big idea

Objective
Given a textbook passage on forces, students will be able to organize the passage's information into a graphic organizer and teach the information to other students.

Relationship to big idea

Objective
Given lab equipment, students will be able to measure force required to pull baby shoes and identify factors that make pulling easier or harder.

Relationship to big idea

Lesson 1: Introduction to forces
Students complete an anticipation guide, using prior knowledge to predict whether statements like “A rock thrown in space will keep going forever” are true or false.  

Lesson 2: Types of forces (informal)

What understandings or goals would be assessed through this task?

•    Students will identify the forces acting on a self-propelled vehicle and explain how the motion of the vehicle demonstrates Newton’s laws.

Through what authentic performance task will students demonstrate understanding?

Task overview:

Performance tasks:

• Other-worldly sports – Students create a poster illustrating how their favorite sport might look on a planet of their choosing, explaining how differences in gravity and atmosphere could affect the forces on players of the sport and sports equipment

Overview 

Earthquake TowerSummary
In this project, students construct drinking straw towers that must withstand the shaking of a shake table. One by one, 250 gram sandbags are loaded onto the towers. The towers must remain standing for 1 minute from the start of the simulated earthquake. Students then have 2 minutes to repair any damage before another sandbag is loaded and the next earthquake test begins. Students quickly learn basic principles of earthquake engineering and architecture as well as the team skills that are a basic part of all science and engineering fields.