Adding Narrative to Friction

With lessons already containing strong narrative pieces it can be a far more effective to add narrative only to specific tasks. In this lesson I would like to add narrative the discussion and testing of the shoes. I am going to add a simple story of a runner who wants to find the best surface to run on.

At this point if there is time remaining, you can repeat the testing with individuals shoes who have yet to be tested. Any student whose shoe beats the winning shoes score should receive a badge as an achievement.

Friction

Objectives	Elements
Discus the results of the car experiment	Explanatory Feedback (Natural) Points for correct facts or answers to questions posed.
Discuss and compare different surface types to test a sports shoe grip on. (Combined with) Test students shoes with the newton meter	Objective to find the tread with the most friction Rules students must (after discussion) individually or as groups choose which tread will have the most resistance. Students can only make one choice and cannot change it once it is on the board. Competition is created between students as each shoe is tested. Explanatory or Diagnostic Feedback to help explain why one shoe is better than another and if required, diagnose why some students may have predicted wrong. Points for correct answers. Consider a podium system with 3 points for the winners, 2 for the 2nd and 1 for the 3rd shoe with the most friction. Replayability if student would like to take another selection of shoes and try again.

 After the first discussion about the car experiment read the following:

Act 1

James is a young boy who loves to run, he wants to run as fast as he possibly can. First of all James tries running on the wet grass but he slips over, then he tries to run on the beach, but his feet keep slipping through the sand. James decides to come to you all for help, he wants to know what the best surface would be for him to run on.

Open to a discussion about different types of surfaces starting with the common such as tarmac, wood etc. and don’t be afraid to throw in some silly hypothetical surfaces such as jelly. This is just an opening to incorporate the discussion task into the narrative. After this discussion proceed to act 2.

Act 2

James now knows what surfaces to run on, but he is not allowed running shoes when he’s at school. In groups of 3-4, James would like you all to pick which of your shoes have the best grip from their soles tread. To make it interesting James will give a point for each member of the team with the highest friction shoe. Teams only get to pick once so choose wisely and remember to record your results when testing.

At this point hand out Newton meters and start the clock. At the end of the 15 minuets (scale to fit time left in the lesson) move on to act 3.

Act 3

Test the nominated shoes for each team and record the measurements on the board to help promote engagement and excitement for the competition. When this has finished announce the winners and award the points to each winning team member.

James has chosen (Students Name)’s shoes to run in as they offer the most friction and will enable him to run the fastest. After years of running as fast as he could, James eventually grew up to be an Olympic runner all thanks to the class’ help.