Inquiry Lesson Plan: Isaac Newton
Topic: Newton’s Laws of Motion
Grade Levels: 7-8th grade
Time Allotment: Five days with 45 min classes
Objectives:
- The students will obtain information on Newton’s life and his contributions to the field of science.
- They will be able to explain Newton’s three laws of motion in depth.
- The student will be able to understand that without and external force upon an object, the object will stay in that state of motion.
- The student will be able to understand the relationship between an objects mass, acceleration and applied force
- The students will be able to understand that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
STANDARDS:
- 12.D.3a- Explain and demonstrate how forces affect motion (e.g., action/reaction, equilibrium conditions, free-falling objects
- 12.D.3b- Explain the factors that affect the gravitational forces on objects (e.g., changes in mass, distance
- 12.C.3a- Explain interactions of energy with matter including changes of state and conservation of mass and energy.
Materials:
Day 1:Introduction PowerPoint on Newton and his life. Unbreakable drinking glass, 3"x5" index card, dime, quarter
Day 2: For the Checker Challenge: 15 checkers, 1 ruler, and lab sheet and for the Eraser Racers Activity: 3 felt chalkboard erasers, string, paper clip, spring scale, lab sheet
Day 3:For the Water Whirl Activity: Empty aluminum soft drink can with pull tab attached, hammer, small nail, string, water, deep sink or bucket, lab sheet
Day 4: Lab worksheets and data collected from all of the activities
Procedures:
Day 1: Step 1 Think About it – Engagement
On the first day the students will be given a scavenger hunt worksheet on Isaac Newton. They will need to find information on Newton’s three different laws and try and interpret them in their own words. After the scavenger hunt the class will come together and discuss what they have found. This will be the anticipatory set leading into the presentation the teacher has prepared for the class. After the power point the teacher will do a quick demonstration on Newton’s gravitational laws. Here he/she will:
1.Place the card on top of the drinking glass, which is right side up on a table. Set the dime in the center of the card.
2. Tell students that you are going to flick the card off the glass. Ask them to predict where the coin will land. Have several students share their predictions.
3. Flick the side of the card very quickly with your fingers. What happened to the coin? Discuss the results and possible reasons for what happened.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 using the quarter. This activity will get the students thinking about the different types of laws they just learned about like acceleration and gravity.
Open-ended questions to get them thinking:
-What happened to the coin?
-What forces act upon the coin?
-Why would the coins fall at the same speed if they are not the same mass?
-What happens to the state of motion of the coin?
Step 2 Investigate – Explore
Day 2
On this day the students will be working cooperatively in groups of three or four. They will be doing experiments bases on Newton’s first and second laws of motion. The first activity they will be doing is Checker Challenge. In this activity the students record their data in a notebook. They will follow these procedures:
1. Stack the checkers to make a tower.
2. Predict what will happen to the checkers when you hit only the bottom checker with a ruler. Record your prediction on the lab sheet.
3. Lay the ruler flat on the table. Swing the ruler sideways quickly so that you only hit the bottom checker. Record your results on the lab sheet.
4. Stack the checkers again. Try removing the checkers one by one without knocking over the tower.
They will need to work collaboratively in their groups to come up with an explanation as to why the checkers act the way they do. The teacher will go around to each group and create small discussions on what they have found or discovered. Once the teacher has met with all the groups and discussed the experiment the teacher will have the students clean up and get ready for the next experiment.
For the next activity the students will work cooperatively in groups of three or four participating in an experiment on Newton’s second law of motion. This experiment is called Eraser Racers. The students will again record their information in the same notebook. They will follow these procedures:
1. Tie the string around the outside edge of one eraser. Attach the paper clip to the string on one of the narrow edges of the eraser. Stack the remaining erasers on top of the first eraser.
2. Hook the spring scale to the paper clip and slowly pull the stack of erasers across a table. Record the amount of force needed (as shown on the spring scale) to accelerate the three erasers.
3. Remove the top eraser. Pull the remaining two erasers across the table using the same amount of force you used in step 2. Record what happened to the acceleration of the erasers on the lab sheet.
4. Remove the top eraser. Predict what you think will happen to the acceleration of the eraser when you pull one eraser using the same amount of force. Repeat step 3 using just one eraser. Try to use the same amount of force as you did in step 2. Record what happened to the acceleration of the eraser on the lab sheet.
The students will discuss their predictions in their groups to see if they were correct. Then they will need to explain the outcome and why they think that it happened. The students need to ask each other questions and try and figure out the concepts in their groups while the teacher walks around and facilitates the small group discussions.
Day 3
The students will be doing an activity called the Water Whirl where they will explore the third law of motion. The students will be working in the same groups that they did the previous day. These are the procedures:
1. Have an adult use the hammer and nail to punch two or three evenly spaced holes around the can close to the bottom. When the nail is in eachhole, push it to the left to angle the hole slightly.
2. Pull the tab straight up and tie one end of the string to it.
3. Over the sink or bucket, fill the can with water. Hold the loose end of the string and observe the action and reaction.
The students will need to record what happened in their notebooks. They will then discuss in their groups different ideas and possibilities about the can and why it did what it did.
Day 4: Step 3 Reflecting upon the Activity and the Investigation Questions – Explain
-First the students will share their results from the Checker Challenge with the class. After the students agree on what they believe the correct answer to be the teacher will share the actual results. As the ruler hits the bottom checker, the checker should slide out of the way without knocking over the rest of the tower. The remaining checkers are not acted upon by the force of the ruler, so they remain at rest. This proves the first law of motion and helps with further understanding.
-The students will share their results from the Eraser Racers with the class. The teacher will share the results at the end of the discussion to help them understand the second law of motion. As the mass of the erasers decreased, the acceleration of the erasers should have increased. Students should then be able to infer that as mass increases, acceleration decreases.
-The last experiment, Water Whirl, will also be explored as a class. The results will also be given at the end. The teacher will share that as the water goes out of the holes (the action) the can should begin to spin (the reaction).
Day 4 continued: Step 4 Digging Deeper – Explain
-The teacher will discuss the three laws of motion and explain them in depth to make sure the students understand. There will be a powerpoint presentation to help clarify that each activity they worked went along with one of the three laws of motion.
Terms:
First Law: Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
Second Law: The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.
Third law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Acceleration: the rate of change in speed
Balanced forces: equal forces that are applied in opposite directions and result in no change in velocity.
Force: a push or a pull that gives objects energy
Inertia: resistance to a force
Mass: the amount of matter in an object
Unbalanced forces: forces that are not equal and opposite, and result in a change in velocity.
Uniform Motion: Having always the same form, manner, or degree; not varying or variable; unchanging; consistent
Velocity: the speed of an object in a certain direction
Day 5: Step 5 Understanding and Applying What you Have Learned – Elaborate
Students will refer back to the second day of the lesson when they did the Checker Challenge. They will need to think back to what happened to the bottom checker when the ruler hit it. What happened to the rest of the checkers? Why didn't the tower of checkers react in the same way as the bottom checker? Give an example of an object in the classroom that remains at rest. What could cause it to move? Explain how this lab demonstrates Newton's first law of motion?
The second activity was the Eraser Racers. The students recorded the what happened with different amount of erasers. What happened to the acceleration rate as you used fewer erasers? What was being decreased as you removed erasers from the stack? How does mass affect acceleration when the amount of force stays the same? Explain how this relates to the second law of motion.
The last activity to look back on is the Water Whirl. What happened to the can? Why would the can spin the way it did? Why would it spin in the direction that it went? What happened to the water in the can? What was the action force? What was the reaction force?
Day 5 continued: Step 6 Inquiring Further – Elaborate / Evaluate
From the Checker Challenge: Imagine another way we can use this concept of Newton’s first law of motion. How is this lab similar to the magic trick of pulling a tablecloth out from underneath dishes? What would happen to the dishes that are sitting on top of the tablecloth?
From the Eraser Racers: There are other ways of representing the second law of motion. Imagine you are pushing a friend on a swing. If your friend wants to go faster, how can you increase the acceleration rate? A motorcycle and a dump truck sit next to each other at a stop light. Which one will accelerate more easily? Explain.
From the Water Whirl: Think of different ways you can express the third laws of motion. If you roll up to a wall on roller blades and push on the wall, what happens to your motion? How is jumping on a trampoline an example of Newton's third law of motion?
What is the action force? What is the reaction force?
Step 7 Assessment – Evaluate
Objectives / Location in Activity / Assessment OpportunityThe students will obtain information on Newton’s life and his contributions to the field of science. / Think About it / Explain Newton’s importance to the science community.
They will be able to explain Newton’s three laws of motion in depth. / Digging Deeper
Understanding and Applying what you have Learned
Inquiring Further / Responses to questions closely match the right answers
The student will be able to understand that without and external force upon an object, the object will stay in that state of motion. / Investigate
Digging Deeper / How the students worked together in activity and discussion.
Responses to questions closely match the right answers
The student will be able to understand the relationship between an objects mass, acceleration and applied force / Investigate
Digging Deeper / How the students worked together in activity and discussion.
Responses to questions closely match the right answers
The students will be able to understand that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. / Investigate
Digging Deeper / How the students worked together in activity and discussion.
Responses to questions closely match the right answers
Rubric
3 / 2 / 1Delivery / The group shared their ideas/concepts with the rest of the class. / The group only shared a few ideas with the class. / The group did not share their ideas with the class.
Participation / Student actively participated in groups and in class discussion. / Student barely participated in group activity and in class discussion. / Student did not participate in group work or in class discussion.
Completeness / The student completed the activity and answered all of the questions that followed. / Student recorded a few outcomes of the activity and answered a few questions. / Student did not record any data from activity and did not answer any questions pertaining to the activity.
References
Newton, Isaac (1642-1727) -- from Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography. (n.d.). ScienceWorld. Retrieved March 22, 2010, from wolfram.com/biography/Newton.html winterroth%27s%20final%20project/Newton%27s%20laws%20of%
Newton's laws of motion activities page. (n.d.). AreaIIILearningTechnologyCenter. Retrieved March 22, 2010, from
Newton's Three Laws of Motion. (n.d.). Isaac Newton. Retrieved March 22, 2010, from