Forces – steps in the learning journey

Early to second level

Interpreting the experiences and outcomesThe sciences experiences and outcomes require interpretation in order to bring out the knowledge and understanding and skills involved. This involves identifying key words and thinking about what learners might need to experience.

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Planning

By investigating how friction, including air resistance, affects motion, I can suggest ways to improve efficiency in moving objects.

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Interpreting an experience and outcome

One way to interpret a particular experience or outcome is to underline key words and think about what they would mean in terms of learning and teaching. When this is done, it quickly becomes clear that a lot is involved and that all the learning would not necessarily happen in one topic or even one school year.

Teachers also need to consider what previous learning and experiences the learners would need for the conceptual journey.

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• Comparing and contrasting different shaped objects movement and how they are slowed by friction.• Investigating the effects on movement of streamlining.• Researching how designers design models to improve aerodynamics.• Learners designing and making their own models.• Changing variables and measuring effects.• Looking at man-made examples and examples from nature.

Interpreting an experience and outcome - key words and phrases

........I can suggest ways to improve efficiency in moving objects.

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Some possible examples:

InvestigatingA range of skills need to be practised in relation to investigating, inquiry and analysing in the sciences. These are outlined in detail in the sciences principles and practices paper.

Interpreting an experience and outcome - key words and phrases

By investigating ............SCN 2-07a

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When planning for learning and teaching relating to a particular experience and outcome or outcomes, it can be useful to identify key concepts that will be developed.The concept development paper can be found on the main sciences page of the Learning and Teaching Scotland website and gives more detail about the concepts involved in particular lines of development. It can be used to plan for the development of learners' scientific knowledge, understanding and skills.

Line of development 07At the early and first levels (SCN 0-07a and SCN 1-07a), learners experience and explore .......

At second level (SCN 2-07a), learners can develop an understanding of friction through exploring ..........

Read: Concept development in the sciences (PDF file).

The concept development in the sciences

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Contexts for learningScience can be taught in contexts to create enjoyment and relevance for learners. Contexts can allow for depth of learning and purpose if carefully planned. Context can also create natural links between subject areas. Links to the world of work can provide specialist expertise and knowledge.

Ideas for different types of contexts:• Imaginary• Real/authentic • Related to challenges• Science stories/topical science

Science lessons can also be taught in discrete subject terms. Where appropriate, this teaching could be related back to a context, for example, looking at solids, liquids and gases to aid understanding of friction between different types of surfaces.

See: Ideas for contexts for learning about forces (Word file)

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Reflective questions: other factors to consider when planning• How will the design principles such as challenge and enjoyment, personalisation and choice and depth impact on planning?• How will space be created for learners ideas?• How might the learners demonstrate/share their understanding?• Which resources/learning environments might be used?• Can value be added through an enterprising approach, involving experts, giving learners roles and responsibilities?• Are there opportunities for collaborative working?• Which other curriculum areas naturally link to this topic?• How will assessment is for learning, actively support learning and teaching?

See: Extracts of plan at first level (Word file).See: Extracts of plan atsecond level (Word file). Back to mai

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Photograph taken during a class visit to the National Museum of Flight.

Find out more about forcesView the filming of a workshop by the Institute of Physics on teaching forces with Tom Clark

The BBC revise wise website is one online resource where teachers can check the science behind a topic they are teaching.

BBC Class Clips can also be useful as a starting point for discussion and investigation and also as a source of information for teachers.

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Learning and teaching ideasEarly Level

Stories can be used as a stimulus for creating interest, discussion, questions and investigation. Example – Using a story from the local paper – The Lorry Driver (idea from Primary Upd8 a resource produced by the Association for Science Education)

Story - A lorry driver got lost and asked at a garage for help. An attendant drew him a map but with the wrong directions. The lorry driver got stuck in a dead end road and couldn't turn round. He tried to drive round a mini roundabout but drove across it pushing over two trees and demolishing a brick wall. He then panicked and hit the accelerator instead of the brake and smashed into three more cars.

Learning space – Create an imaginary housing estate using a toy car mat. Put in houses, plastic trees, people etc, create some walls with toy bricks. Have toy cars and a lorry.

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Ideas for activities and investigations• Introduce the children to the story about the lorry driver who got lost• Let the children explore and play with the lorry and cars on the mat. • What happens when the wall is hit? • Discuss pushes and pulls. Ask questions to help them notice the difference between big and little pushes and the effects on what happens to the wall.• Investigate building walls in different ways to see which is best for stability.• Provide different types of rough and smooth surfaces for the children to experience so that they can feel the difference that the wheels rubbing over different surfaces makes.• Provide slopes for the children to play with the cars on and to use the different surfaces with. Simple measuring tapes could help them to see the difference between different surfaces.

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Links to other Curriculum Areas• Show children how to use Roamer and to programme it to go round a route on a simple mat (links with numeracy).• Create a scenario where a character was nearly hurt by a car going too fast. What can they do to help prevent accidents? (links to health and wellbeing)• Go on a walk to look at how cars can be slowed down, safe ways to cross the road.• Provide materials for children to make road bumps on a toy road and allow them to play with seeing how they can slow the cars down.• People who help us – visits from lollipop lady/road safety officer on safe crossing.• Use resources from the children’s traffic club nursery pack to help children consider keeping safe with traffic.

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Fairground ScienceLearn about the physics of fairground rides and investigate slopes, weight, carriage size and shape. Make use of virtual programmes as well as using physical materials.

Use the virtual game from the Glasgow Science Centre website to investigate the effects of friction (rolling resistance and air resistance) on the motion of the vehicle. By adjusting the materials used and the design of the rollercoaster car, and using their understanding of forces pupils have the opportunity to improve the design of a roller coaster car.

http://www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/FileAccess.aspx?id=2155 (Glasgow Science Centre website)http://library.thinkquest.org/2745/data/openpark.htm (Oracle ThinkQuest website)

Use construction equipment such as lego and Knex to build fairground rides to apply knowledge of forces, strength of materials and the design process.

http://www.stemscotland.com/challengedownloads.html (Stem Scotland website)

Make use of Stem Scotland’s Knex challenge materials to learn some of the basic skills needed. Next

Examples of lesson ideas in the context of rocketsStraw RocketsLearning aims: to consider the forces acting upon their rocket and observe their effects, to identify and test variables. http://quest.nasa.gov/space/teachers/rockets/act5.html (NASA website)

Balloon rockets Learning aims: to think about thrust, to observe how shape affects motion, to revise that friction can be created between different surfaces including solids, liquids and gases.http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/balloonrocket.php (Science Bob website)

Investigation of fizz pop rocketsLearning aims: to isolate and measure variables, changing the shape of the rocket, considering weight of materials, reporting on and evaluating results.http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/rocket.shtml (NASA website)

Rocket DevelopmentLearning aims: to investigate the development of rocket design, find out some of the purposes of rocket use and to create a pod cast in the genre of explanation as entertainment.http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/diypodcast/rocket-evolution-index-diy.html (NASA website)

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Early/First Level

A primary one/two composite class did a project called Play Park. This involved:• Looking at forces in the context of the play park• Creating their own model play equipment• Making use of new technologies to record their findings at the play park and communicate them to others• Use of glow to share classes learning with others.See: Extracts from the teacher’s plan (Word file).

Second level

Snapshots of practice

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A primary 6 class did a project called Rocket Challenge. This involved:• Learning about forces in the context of rockets• Designing, building, testing and evaluating their own rockets.View the animated slide show – Rocket Challenge. See: Extracts from the teacher’s plan (Word file).

The 5 E’s constructivist approach

The aim of this part of the resource is to consider learning and teaching about forces through the lens of the 5 E’s constructivist approach.

This approach is based on theory about how learners learn and involves active exploration. It has 5 main stages: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate.

You can find out more about this approach and the thinking behind it by visiting the Enhancing Education website.

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Click on the links below to find out more about the 5 stages of the constructivist approach.

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EngageIn constructivist theory:“The Engage Phase is designed to spark students’ interest, stimulate their curiosity and raise questions for inquiry and elicit students’ existing belief about the topic. Students’ writing, drawing and talk provide an opportunity for the teacher to assess students’ prior knowledge, including any alternative conceptions. The teacher then takes account of students’ existing ideas when planning future learning experiences.”Australian Primary Connections

Reflective questions can be used to generate curiosity and focus attention during engage activities. When learners are encouraged to raise their own ideas and questions this can lead naturally into inquiry.

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Engage activities :

Can• create excitement and interest• provoke curiosity and wonder• give learners an unexpected result

and should• generate discussion/debate• raise questions• create natural reasons to explore.

Examples• Tumble wing gliders when finding out about flight (PDF file on ABC website)• Pencil in a jar of rice that holds it up (to think about friction) (PDF file on ABC website)• a video clip that surprises e.g. a feather and a hammer being dropped by Apollo astronaut when challenging ideas about gravity (NASA website). Next

Engage - eliciting learner’s initial ideas

At the beginning of a new topic it is necessary to find out:• which experiences learners already have• previous knowledge• possible misconceptions.

This can help teachers to decide on learning activities which will build on what learners already know and will help them to come to a new understanding of concepts. In the sciences children can hold many misconceptions which need to be challenged, for example, that if an object is at rest no forces are acting upon it.

“... It is only through this initial elicitation process that we can provide experiences to help children to modify these ideas.”Knight, 2009

Read an article written by Professor Rupert Knight for the Association of Science Education’s Primary Science magazine on this subject. (PDF file: Starting with what they know) (The magazine is just one benefit of school membership of the ASE. More details on ASE website.)

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Engage - eliciting learner’s initial ideasCard sorts

Card sorts are one way to find out learners’ previous knowledge, identify misconceptions and generate reasons to further explore and investigate.

Card sorts work best when learners’ are given opportunities, in groups, to discuss, where to put the cards, share ideas and challenge each others’ thinking. They can be revisited as learners discover more.

True/False/Not Sure card sort used by a Primary 6 teacher during a project called Rocket Challenge.Next

Engage - eliciting learner’s initial ideasMind maps

Mind maps are another way to diagnostically assess learners initial ideas. A mind map could be used at the beginning and end of a project so that learners can reflect the on the knowledge and learning journey.

Some other ideas:Concept cartoons, using a video clip to generate questions, learning logs, annotated drawings, letting children explore equipment or objects.

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Engage - eliciting learner’s initial ideasMisconceptions

Learners misconceptions form in a variety of ways:

• they can be passed on from other people• ideas and concepts can be combined incorrectly• learners can make judgements based on too little evidence/experience• the science is counter-intuitive to the observed e.g. the Sun moving across the sky• everyday language confuses understanding eg referring to kilograms as a measure of weight when actually they are a unit of mass.

This child has a theory that gravity is something that is spent or used up.

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Engage - eliciting learner’s initial ideasCommon misconceptionsLearners’ often hold some common misconceptions about forces eg:

‘Earth has gravity because it has an atmosphere, therefore the moon has no gravity.’‘Objects of the same shape but different weights fall at different rates.’‘Slippery surfaces do not create friction.’

See more Children's Misconceptions about Science (Operations Physics American Institute of Physics website).

How can we challenge these misconceptions?

• Use activities to elicit the learners’ ideas to open up discussion • Structuring learning activities to help the students, through experience, discussion and teaching construct new understandings.

See the presentation by Tom Clark, Field Officer for the Institute of Physics, which looks at activities for challenging common misconceptions relating to forces (PowerPoint file: Teaching forces).

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In the explore phase learners’ are given opportunities to actively experience the science phenomena of the topics and develop their understanding of the concepts. They should be involved in investigating, collecting evidence, discussing their observations and keeping records. This shared understanding is important to the explain phase.

In this primary 1/2 class the children explored pushes and pulls in the context of toys. Through investigations, pupils observed and gathered evidence about how forces act on toys in air ,water, and on the ground. Pupils were introduced to the effect of the pull of gravity and learnt that both air and water can 'push‘.

Explore

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During a rocket challenge project, a primary 6 class explored making one change to the design of their rockets. They measured changes in distance travelled and discussed why they thought the observed changes might have happened.

In another session they worked in co-operative groups to explore how flying objects worked. Reflective questions helped them to observe the effects of forces.

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Explore

ExplainIn the explain phase of the constructivist approach, learners are given opportunities to represent their developing understanding and discuss patterns and relationships.

Some form of literary product can be useful here to help the teacher assess what the learner has understood and offers natural opportunities for formative assessment.

Literary products need not always be lengthy, written pieces. Learners should be given opportunities to: say, do, write and make. Some examples of these products could be: a scientific report, a written explanation, a talk, a presentation, an annotated diagram, a cartoon, a podcast, a vidcast, a poster, a model, a drama etc.

Pupils can also discuss the current views and work of scientists to deepen their own understandings.

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During the explain phase the teacher can introduce scientific terms and conventions to help the learners’ have a shared vocabulary for the understandings that they have developed in the explore stage. Class journals and displays can be used to record thinking and new learning. Word walls, science glossaries and writing/talking/listening frames can help learners share their new understandings.

In one school project called Smooth Moves, the teacher introduced forces diagrams and the conventions for using arrows to represent the direction and different sized forces.

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During the explain phase the teacher has the opportunity to formatively assess the learners’ understandings of the concepts they have been learning about. Here learning goals that have been achieved can be recognised and advice can be given to help learners’ where they still have some conceptual misunderstandings.

It is also an opportunity for them to learn how to improve their performance against given criteria, using a range of strategies including: analysing work using rubrics, acting upon teachers’ and peers comments, next steps and advice.

Explain

Elaborate

“This phase of the 5 E's extends students' conceptual understanding and allows them to practice skills and behaviours. Through new experiences, the learners develop deeper and broader understanding of major concepts, obtain more information about areas of interest, and refine their skills.”Enhancing Education CPB

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Child testing a rocket he made as a science/technology challenge during the elaborate stage.

Elaborate

One primary 3 class had been looking at pushes and pulls, carrying out simple experiments to see how different toys moved over solids, through the air and through water. In the elaborate stage they carried out an investigation with paper helicopters where they selected a simple variable to adjust and recorded their results.

During their project Smooth Moves a primary 5 class had been investigating the forces involved in objects moving over different surfaces. In the elaborate stage learners were given the opportunity to apply the skills learnt during the project of measuring and graph making to an investigation that they planned themselves.

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Elaborate – challengesChallenges are another way to deepen learners understanding, giving them the opportunity to transfer skills and concepts to new and more complex situations. The teacher can use this stage to assess understanding of the earlier exploring and investigating stages.

In order to be effective challenges need to include some of the following features:• clear goals • success criteria • opportunities to demonstrate skills and new concepts gained • learners take on roles and responsibilities• choices involved• higher order thinking • the skills of more than one curriculum area could be brought to the challenge• demonstrations of understanding/learning product.

This primary 6 class designed cars from junk materials, tested how they performed when blown by a hairdryer. They had to consider, weight, balance and streamlining. They made adjustments to their cars and retested and evaluated their results.

In the evaluate stage learners’ are given opportunities to demonstrate their new understandings and reflect on the learning journey. Summative assessments can be used in a formative way to provide information about the learning.

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Evaluate

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Learners should be given opportunities in this phase to reflect on their learning journey, record their achievements and set next steps.

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This approach ties in well with personal learning planning and information could be shared with parents. Personal Learning planning in this way would share with the parents their child’s progress and help identify places where they could support.

Curriculum for excellence, emphasises the importance of celebrating achievement. This could be done in a number of ways. For example, sharing new learning with a wider audience in a class situation or with parents/ carers at a science fair.

The following acknowledgements are printed to show that we have referred to the materials of the Primary Connections science project.

“We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Australian Academy of Science (www.science.org.au) in making its publications available to us for scientific educational use.”

"Australian Academy of Science Primary Connections was funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations as a quality teacher initiative under the Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme

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