Motion and Design Training

4th Grade Inquiry-Based Science Module

Presenter: Stacy Chang, NBCTchangsl@uab.edu

PowerPoint created by AMSTI trainers

Revised by Stacy Chang

TheLearning

Cycle

“The 5 E’s” of an inquiry-based lesson

Initiate

Apply Clarify

Question

Evaluate

Science Notebook Components

Question/Problem/Purpose

Hypothesis

Procedure/Planning

Results/Data/Observations

Conclusion/What Have You Learned?

Next Step/New Question

AL Course of Study Science ACOS# 4

Describe effects of friction on moving objects.

Identifying momentum and inertia as properties of moving objects.

Identifying ways to increase or decrease friction.

Date

Lesson 1A: Motion and Design KWLQuestion: What do you KNOW about Motion and Design? What do you WONDER about Motion and Design?

Motion and Design

Students explore concepts related to the physics of motion and apply those concepts to technological design.

It enables students to analyze the motion of vehicles they have built, investigate

how forces affect a vehicle’s motion, and design vehicles that are propelled by

stored energy.

Big Ideas1. Physics explains and predicts the

motion of objects.

2. Energy is the ability to make objects move. It is never created nor destroyed, but merely changes forms.

3. The laws of physics are used in a cost-effective way to achieve efficient and purposeful designs.

• Materials Manager –get tub/ bucket of materials

• Get each piece on sheet and color (Optional).

Date Lesson 1B: Exploring the Pieces

Have fun!

This is your time to “Free Explore”

the building pieces.

Date

Lesson 1B: Exploring the Pieces

What did you discover during “free exploration” of the building pieces?

How do the pieces fit together? “Tips on Using Building Pieces”

(From time to time, the vendor changes the colors of the building pieces. Look at the SIZE and SHAPE of the pieces.)

Team Challenge: In 20 minutes or less, design and build a vehicle that will move at

least 100 cm (39 in).

How will you test whether your vehicle meet the requirements?

o

Keep in mind that this is our “getting started” lesson. You will have many opportunities throughout the unit to

design, build, and test how vehicles move.

DO NOT TAKE THIS APART. WE WILL USE THIS VEHICLE IN LESSON 2.

Team Challenge Race!

Vehicle Name

Distance Traveled (cm)

Observations

Newton's First Law of Motion An object in motion tends to

remain in motion, and an object at rest tends to remain at rest.

If you were out in space and you gave a rock a push, its momentum would keep the rock moving at the same speed in the same direction until it bumped into something. On the other hand, if you put a rock in space and left it there not moving, its inertia would keep it right there, hanging in space, forever (or until something bumped into it or it came under gravitational or magnetic pull). On Earth, objects don't really remain in motion, because friction slows them down, and gravity pulls them toward the ground.

Question: How can we use drawings to record and build vehicles?

Engineers use science and math to plan, design, and construct products. They often sketch their ideas and plans before they build. They also make detailed records of their products after building them, either by drawing them or using computer graphics, so the products can be studied and improved.

You will follow similar activities. 0

How do engineers use drawings?

Materials Manager, please get the following materials: •Your vehicles from previous lesson

•Colored pencils

•Rulers

•Circle templates 0

Using graph paper:

• Draw your group’s vehicle • from Lesson One.

• Be sure to date your drawing. Glue your drawing into your Science Notebook.

• Writing a description of your drawing in your Science Notebook. 0

Three-view Drawing

You now have a permanent record of your first design!

Materials Manager: please pick up your tub/ bucket of building pieces.

Your team now needs to:

• Take apart your vehicle

• Put all materials back

in the bucket. 0

Analyzing your drawings and descriptions:

If you were to build the same vehicle again, what features on the drawing would make it easy to build? 0

Let’s Build Again! Standard Vehicle: Figure 2-2. (This is also in your Student Investigations Book and TG.)

Examine the

technical drawing

and decide which

pieces you need to

build the vehicle.

If it will help you,

you may color-

code your drawing.

The Standard Vehicle Figure 2-2

(Front- fixed axle. Axle does not go through yellow center in the front).

You will be using this standard vehicle in your investigations for the next six lessons. 0

Final Activities: Let’s all display our vehicles.

Do they all look alike?

Why? 0

Final Activities, cont. • Compare your first drawing with the technical

drawing.

• How is your own drawing similar to or different from the technical drawing?

• On the technical drawing, what do you notice about the two views of the vehicle? How are they alike? How are they different?

• What parts of the technical drawing might make it easy for you to build this vehicle? What parts might make it difficult?

• How does color help in a drawing?

• Which drawing (your own or the technical one) might be easier to use if you needed to build 100 copies of a single model? Why? 0

Reading Selection:

“The Race That Wasn’t Run”

Think about how you felt when building your vehicle in Lesson 1. How might your feelings be like those of Bobby Rahal and his design team? 0

Lesson 3: Pulling a Vehicle: Looking at Force

Question: What is force? How will it affect the motion of

your vehicle?

Hypothesis: I think force is _______________. If you add

force to our vehicle, then_____________.

Plan: Student Investigations Book p. 15-16.

Observations: Record Sheet 3-A

Lesson 3 continued.

Conclusion: Force is a push or a pull. The effect of the

force on the motion of the vehicle depends on the size

and direction of the force. In this investigation, the

vehicle was pulled by the force of gravity, which acts on

the weighted string and pulls the weight forward. Adding

washers to our vehicles made our vehicles move faster.

Reflection:

Lesson 3 Extension

Ways to make our vehicle move quickly...

Ways to make our vehicle move slowly...

Review: Newton's First Law of Motion

An object in motion tends to remain in motion, and an object at rest tends to remain at rest.

If you were out in space and you gave a rock a push, its momentum would keep the rock moving at the same speed in the same direction until it bumped into something. On the other hand, if you put a rock in space and left it there not moving, its inertia would keep it right there, hanging in space, forever (or until something bumped into it or it came under gravitational or magnetic pull). On Earth, objects don't really remain in motion, because friction slows them down, and gravity pulls them toward the ground.

Newton's Second Law of Motion

Force equals mass times acceleration. To move a mass, you have to have force.

You can tell how hard a moving object is going to hit by knowing how big it is (how much mass it has) and how fast it is speeding up (its acceleration).

For instance, if the pitcher throws the ball to the catcher, how hard it hits the catcher's glove depends on how much mass the ball has and whether it is speeding up or slowing down when it gets to the glove. You can make something hit harder either by making it bigger or by throwing it faster.

 

Newton's Third Law of Motion

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Everything moves relative to everything else. If you push somebody, the push forces her backwards, but it also forces you backwards - that's the equal and opposite reaction. Sometimes the thing you're pushing against is so big that you don't notice the reaction (like if you are pushing off from the ground, the Earth is too big for you to see the reaction), but it is still there.

 

Think and Record

Question: How will adding blocks to your vehicles change

the way the vehicles move?

Record your predictions in your Science Notebook. 0

Materials You Need:

• 1 pencil

• 1 copy of Record Sheet 4-A: Graphing Data

• 1 standard vehicle

• 1 string with paper clip hooks

• 16 small metal washers

• 2 blocks of wood

• 1 bookend

• 1 each red, blue, green pencils 0

Think and Record

How could you change your vehicle so that it would hold two blocks of wood while it moves?

Record your ideas in your Science Notebook. 0

Mass Weight

To make it fair…In this lesson all of us will attach the blocks in the same manner. 0

To make it fair…

Each team will use a timer to measure how long it takes your vehicles to move in each trial. Using consistent tools, you will

be able to compare results.

Materials Manager needs to get a timer from the distribution center. 0

Using your timer:

Practice starting and stopping the timer.

What do the large-and small-number displays on the time represent? 0

A student will move across the classroom. Time the motion of this

student to the nearest second.

Brainstorm examples of motion that we measure with time.

Record your ideas in your Science Notebook. 0

Elapsed time…

1. Set up the falling-weight system as you did in Lesson 3.

2. Add two blocks to your vehicle. Squeeze the crossbars to make certain the blocks are held in place. 0

Student Instructions for Testing the Motion of Vehicles Carrying a Load

Remember: Stop the timer when the weights hit the floor.

Testing the Motion of Vehicles Carrying a Load

Record Sheet 4-A: Graphing Data 0

Complete the investigation by following the student instructions on pgs. 20 – 22

of the Student Investigations Book.

• Be sure to use the colored pencils to fill in the appropriate circles on the line plot on Record Sheet 4-A.

• Keep the number of washers the same for each trial.

• Change only the load carried by the vehicle. 0

1.What did you observe when testing various loads (blocks)?

2.How did the vehicle move when it was loaded with two blocks?

3.How did the motion of the vehicle change when you removed one block?

4.How did it change when you removed both blocks?

5.What do you think would happen if you added a third or fourth blocks to the vehicle? 0

Looking at Results:

6.When the vehicle carried no blocks, what was left to influence its motion? (the weight of the vehicle)

7.What can you conclude about the effects of load (such as blocks) on a vehicle’s motion?

8.What situations at home or in school may be similar to what you tested in this lesson? 0

Looking at Results, cont.:

Materials Manager: Return all materials to the distribution center. Make sure:

• To carefully wrap your string around the cardboard so it does not tangle.

• Return all washers to their cup. 0

Discuss Question: What happens when you add a load to your vehicle? Does it speed up or does it slow down?

Conclusion/ Reflection: The larger the load,

the slower the speed of the vehicle when

a constant force is applied

(gravity/washer). The larger load has

more mass, therefore, more inertia,

requiring a greater force to get it moving

than if the load were small.

Next Step/ New Questions:

DateLesson 5: Designing Vehicles to Meet Requirements

Question: How can you design vehicles to meet the following requirements? (Design Challenge)

Hypothesis:

Plan:

Observations: (Write about your vehicle and draw it.)

Conclusion/ Reflection: (Write a conclusion)

Next Steps/ New Questions: