Un-gamified Lesson Plans and Worksheets Part 1: Opposing Forces

After speaking with my lecturers I have decided to present my blog in a slightly different way. Bellow I am going to show the different lesson plans I have found based around the KS2 Year 5 subject of Science. My plan is to show my process of gamifying these lessons and tasks over the coming weeks. This will show what a gamified curriculum will look like in all its stages and also form an organic pipeline what I can document for other to use if they wish. These lesson plans will be presented in separate posts due to their length.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Session B: Opposing Forces (NOT GAMIFIED)

Whole class teaching:

Remind students that the force meters they used in the last session used units called newtons (N), named after Sir Isaac Newton. Do the students know anything about this famous scientist? Using the session resource discuss Newton’s life.

Tell students about Newton’s work with gravity - demonstrate by dropping an apple! Explain that it was actually a falling apple that made Newton think in depth about gravity.

Play short animation at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/learning-zone/primary-students/5th-+-6th-class/science/gravity/famous-scientists-and-gra/isaac-newton/

Or the video clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk6Hd8LAv9k

Newton was considered an amazing scientist during his life & when he died in 1727 he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London. Use Discussion Drawing (session resource) to stimulate discussion about forces. Remind students that gravity is the force of attraction of an object. All objects with mass exert a pull on other objects, but the Earth is by far the biggest object so exerts the biggest force.

Show students a book lying on a table. Draw a diagram of it on the board & add the arrows of the forces between the book & the table (or use session resource). Explain that Newton also investigated many other things in science and maths, e.g. he discovered that white light contains the same colours as seen in a rainbow. Read a poem about his three ‘laws of motion’ (session resources).

So what stops us being sucked to the very centre of the Earth? The simple answer is that gravity is not strong enough. It is a relatively weak force, much weaker than the forces that hold together the ground or floor we stand on. Newton theorised that ‘every action has an equal & opposite reaction’ (his ‘Third Law of Motion’). The ‘equal and opposite’ balancing force to our weight is the resistance (or upthrust) provided by the ground. Because these separate forces are in balance, we do not fall through the ground – or float away! If there is not enough strength in what we stand on – like a thin layer of ice on water, or a rotten wood floor for example – then our weight will overcome the upthrust that the floor can provide and we fall through it. Place a book on the table – the book is pushing on the table because it is being pulled down by gravity. The table is providing resistance and pushing back. As the forces are balanced, the book does not move.

                                         

Lesson Resources

Who was Sir Isaac Newton?

Sir Isaac Newton is one of the greatest scientists who have ever lived. Born in 1642 Isaac Newton had a lasting impact on astronomy, physics, and mathematics. His father died before he was born and so Newton had a difficult childhood. His mother remarried when he was just three, and he was then sent to live with his grandmother. After his stepfather died, his mother brought him home to Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire, where she wanted him to become a farmer. However an uncle noticed how clever he was and he eventually made it to Trinity College, Cambridge University.
Many of his great ideas came in 1665-66, when he spent time back at Woolsthorpe while Cambridge was closed because of the plague. Among his many achievements were the invention of the reflecting telescope, the basic design behind all large telescopes used today; the invention of some mathematics known as calculus, which is very useful in science today; the discovery of the three laws of motion; and the development of the law of universal gravitation: the theory that all objects fall at the same rate without air resistance.
When still in his mid-twenties, he was named Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, a post now held by Stephen Hawking.

He died in 1727 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Sir Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion

Newton was a clever man.
An avid scientific fan.
He questioned many things he saw.
Like ones we had no answers for.

He thought them through right to their cores.
Then gave us many handy laws.

Newton’s First Law Of Motion:
Without a force of push or pull
an object will remain quite still.
With just one push at just one time
that object moves in one straight line.

Newton’s Second Law Of Motion:
A bigger Force accelerates
an object that is heavy-weight.
While objects of a smaller mass
don’t need much Force to move them fast.

So Newton noticed they obey
that Force will equal m times a.

Newton’s Third Law Of Motion:
Now bend a stick. Before it cracks
you’ll feel its force of pushing back.
For every action there will be
an equal one – opposingly.

Without his formulas in place
we’d soon get lost in outer space.
So Isaac’s Laws help us traverse
the reaches of our universe.

by Celia Berrell

Taken from: http://www.sciencerhymes.com.au/published-poem

References

Forces (Year 5) | Hamilton Trust. 2015. Forces (Year 5) | Hamilton Trust. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.hamilton-trust.org.uk/browse/science/y5/forces-year-5/86859. [Accessed 16 November 2015].