Emily's Lesson Plan

Lesson Title & Subject(s): Forces and Their Impact

Topic or Unit of Study: Physical Sciences

Grade/Level: Fourth Grade

Instructional Setting: Classroom activity with projector and seats facing the front of the room. There will also be an open space in the back of the classroom.

Your State Core Curriculum/Student Achievement Standard(s):
3-PS2-1 Motion and Stabliity: Forces and Interactions (https://www.nextgenscience.org/)
Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object. [Clarification Statement: Examples could include an unbalanced force on one side of a ball can make it start moving; and, balanced forces pushing on a box from both sides will not produce any motion at all.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to one variable at a time: number, size, or direction of forces. Assessment does not include quantitative force size, only qualitative and relative. Assessment is limited to gravity being addressed as a force that pulls objects down.]

Lesson Objective(s):
Given a worksheet, the student will be able to identify if unbalanced or balanced forces are affecting the motion of an object with 5/6 of the questions correct.

Instructional Materials:

Balls
Rope
Projector
Power Point
Worksheets
Exit Tickets

Resources:

Balanced & Unbalanced Forces: Science Lesson For Kids: Grades 3-5. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2019, from https://www.generationgenius.com/balanced-and-unbalanced-forces-for-kids/.

Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States (3-PS2-1 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions) . (2013). Retrieved December 10, 2019, from https://www.nextgenscience.org/pe/3-ps2-1-motion-and-stability-forces-and-interactions.

Teaching Balanced and Unbalanced Forces. (2015, June 22). Retrieved December 10, 2019, from http://www.morethanaworksheet.com/2015/06/20/teaching-balanced-and-unbalanced-forces/.





Sequence of Instructional Procedures/Activities/Events

Student Prerequisite Skills/Connections to Previous Learning: (5 minutes)
Students will need to rely on previous knowledge of what pushes and pulls are. In order to activate previous learning, a short review will take place.
Review Activity:
Bring students to an open area (i.e. large space in the classroom)
Instruct students to stand in a circle.
Place a rope in the middle of the circle.
Ask the students what they see. Pause to allow students time to think about what they are observing (active participation: Pause so students can reflect on what they observed).
Ask probing questions- such as
Is the rope moving?
How can we make the rope move?
Facilitate a discussion about ways to make the rope move
Per prior knowledge, students should say pull the rope or push the rope.

Presentation Procedures for New Information and/or Modeling: (5 minutes)

The teacher will explain to the students:

The purpose of the lesson is to learn the impact of balanced and unbalanced forces on an object. From our previous lesson, we know that forces are necessary to push, pull, open, close, move, lift and turn objects. If you throw a ball, or ride you bike, you are using force. An object’s motion can be changed when unbalanced forces act upon it. If an object is at rest (not moving) and an unbalanced force pushes or pulls it, it will move.

The teacher will use a multimedia presentation showing video clips of examples of force, such as riding a bike and throwing a ball to aid in explaining balanced and unbalanced forces. (Technology strategy: video clip)


Guided Practice: (10 minutes)

Move back to the circle that the lesson began with, the teacher will use a student volunteer to model push and pull.

Show the following-
Teacher and volunteer do not touch the rope at all
Teacher uses thinking out loud strategy to engage the students in thinking by saying “neither of us are doing anything to the rope, and is not moving.”
The teacher will ask, “What forces are acting upon the rope?
The teacher will ask, “Are the forces balanced or unbalanced?”
Teacher and volunteer pull equally
Teacher uses thinking out loud strategy to engage the students in thinking by saying “we are both pulling equally and the rope is not moving.”
The teacher will ask, “What forces are acting upon the rope?
The teacher will ask, “Are the forces balanced or unbalanced?”
Teacher does not pull, only volunteer pulls
Teacher uses thinking out loud strategy to engage the students in thinking by saying “One pull is stronger than the other”
The teacher will ask, “What forces are acting upon the rope?
The teacher will ask, “Are the forces balanced or unbalanced?”

Independent Student Practice: (15 minutes)

The teacher will group students using heterogeneous grouping (grouping strategy: heterogeneous grouping) and instruct students to complete an activity and an accompanying worksheet (assessment). The teacher will explain the activity and pass out materials to the groups. The teacher will walk from group to group to help guide and facilitate discussion where it is needed.

In their assigned groups, students will answer the question “how do balanced and unbalanced forces affect the motion of a ball?”

First, students will place the ball on the floor and decide as a group what forces are currently acting on the ball, and if the forces are balanced or unbalanced. They will independently record this on their worksheet.

Secondly, the students will push the ball lightly with one finger back and forth around the group in opposite directions. They will then decide what forces are acting on the ball and if they are balanced or unbalanced forces. They will independently record this on their worksheet.

Thirdly, one student in the group will push the ball lightly,  but no one will push it back. The students will decide what forces are acting upon the ball then. They will independently record this on their worksheet.

The students then will discuss and record on their worksheet what a balanced force does to a ball and what an unbalanced force does to a ball.

Culminating or Closing Procedure/Activity/Event: (5 minutes)

Students will fill out an exit ticket (formative strategy: exit ticket).

The teacher will ask the students to think about bowling. The teacher should ask the students to answer the following questions:
What forces are present in the game acting on the ball?
when you are holding the ball
when the ball is rolling down the lane
What do you know about forces after today’s lesson?


Instructional Strategy (or Strategies):

The following instructional strategies were used in this lesson:

Cooperative learning - This strategy was used during independent student practice. Cooperative learning was used to give the students opportunities to work together to apply what they learned in the lesson about force.
Direct instruction - This strategy was used during presentation procedures for new information. Direct instruction was used to present the new information about balanced and unbalanced forces to the students.

Differentiated Instruction Accommodations:

To accommodate the needs of diverse learners in the classroom, the students will be presented with many different examples of force in the lesson. This is shown in the multimedia presentation used during the presentation procedures for new information, the rope example used in the lesson, the ball activity done during independent practice and in the bowling exit ticket.

To meet the needs of ELL so they can fully participate in the lesson, the teacher will use verbal, written and modeled instructions and methods during the class. Students will also be paired in heterogeneous groups to pair ELL with strong English speaking students in order to assist them with understanding. This can be seen in each phase of the instructional sequence.

To meet the needs of gifted students so they can gain a deeper understanding of the new content, the teacher will leave an open-ended question in the exit ticket to give gifted students an opportunity to expand further on what they observed and thought about during the lesson.

Use of Technology:

The use of technology is present in the presentation of new information. The teacher uses a multimedia presentation to present new information to students with video clips embedded into the PowerPoint. This enhances student engagement in the lesson by making it interesting for them to look and allowing the teacher to have easy to access examples on the board for every student to see.

Student Assessment/Rubrics:

The worksheet that each student will complete during the independent student practice is the assessment for this lesson. The worksheet will ask six questions (questions are referenced in the independent student practice section of this lesson). The students must answer ⅚ questions right to show mastery.