K-5Forces, Motion & EnergyHands-on NGSS Lessons

PRESENTERS:Kim Feltre, Ed.D., K-12 Science Supervisor, Hillsborough Township Public Schools, N.J

William Banko, M.D., Knowing Science

Dario Capasso, Ph.D., Knowing Science

KINDERGARTEN LEARNING PROGRESSION:

Pushes and Pulls on the Motion of an Object

1 MOTION: The NGSS standard specifies “pushes and pulls” and “motion

of an object”. The underlying concept for this standard is motion, a major

crosscutting concept for all of science and familiar to everyone as part of

their daily experiences. Before introducing an operational definition of push

and pull (by having students push and pull objects), the teacher needs to

establish some basic foundational knowledge about motion, specifically

what motion is and what it means to move. Students intuitively and

viscerally know what pushes and pulls are. Once they understand motion,

they can grasp a scientific definition of push and pull. When something is

pushed or pulled by an unbalanced force, the object will move.

2 DISTANCE: During classroom discussions and demonstrations of motion

students verbalize and demonstrate what they think motion is. The teacher

guides students to a working definition of motion that can be akin to

“when something moves, it goes from one place to another” or “something

starts in one place and goes to another place.” This may be an appropriate

time to introduce the vocabulary word “distance” and explain to students

that the separation between the starting point and ending point is called

distance. CCSS Math: Nonstandard units and even standard units can be

used to measure the distance between two objects. If students notice

that one distance between objects is longer than the distance between

another set of objects, the teacher can ask if there are more measuring

units (standard or nonstandard) in the longer distance than in the smaller

distance. CONTENT.K.CC.A.3,and CONTENT.K.CC.B.4

3 DIRECTION: Direction is also a foundational concept that should be talked

about before approaching a scientific definition of push and pull. Students

intuitively know what direction is. There are several ways to initiate a

discussion about “direction.” One is to give groups of students a paper

with an arrow on it and ask them to point the arrow to various objects in

the classroom. Direction (and the use of arrows) is a common crosscutting

concept that is used in many subject areas: math (graphs and geometry),

physics (vectors), and Earth and space sciences (directions of weather

patterns, directions of astronomical objects). After all students can explain

the concept of direction and give examples of direction in the classroom

by using arrows, it becomes important to have students understand that

things can move away from something or towards something. Students

can use arrows to indicate that a ball is moving away from them or use

an arrow to show the ball is moving towards them. Working in groups,

students can roll a soccer ball, basketball (or any ball) with other students

in the group, placing arrows on the floor indicating the direction that the

ball moved.

K-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object

4 PUSH AND PULL: Students are now ready to play tug-of-war. This activity

combines the best of all worlds. The new science of learning (Foundations

for a New Science of Learning, Meltzoff ) demonstrates that there are three

principles that “characterize the exuberant learning that occurs during

childhood”. 1) Learning is computational – even infants use basic math

to model the world around them and statistical patterns are used to

anticipate both language and actions in their environment. 2) Learning is

social – students need to work in teams and small groups and interact with

each other to reinforce the concepts that they have learned. 3) Learning is

supported by brain circuits linking perception and action – this simply means

that when students perceive things through the senses and then act on

what they perceive the same neural networks are used in both perception

and action. Therefore hands-on activities are absolutely critical in the early

years and enable a deep understanding of basic science concepts.

Tug-of-war combines all three principles of learning and is a

fun way for students to physiologically feel a pulling force.

It’ll be a lot easier to remember that forces are pushes or pulls

when students have a tremendous amount of fun experiencing

forces. The arrows previously used by students to indicate

direction can be used during tug-of-war to show the direction

of the pull. As the teacher removes students from one group

giving the other group an advantage, an arrow can be used

to predict the direction that the winning team will move.

Furthermore students will see that as students are removed

from one group less force is applied within that group. This

recognition helps to establish a quantitative relationship

between the number of students in a group and force applied

within that group. Finally, if a long pole is available, the

teacher can ask students to push on the tug-of-war rope. After the initial

confusion students will realize they cannot push on a flexible rope. The

long pole can be substituted for the rope and students will then be able

to push and pull on the long pole and play tug-of-war in both directions.

CCSS Math: There are numerous math connections that can be made during

tug-of-war: counting the number of students in each group, counting

forward beginning from a specific student within the tug-of-war team,

CONTENT.K.CC.A.2 and describing the relative positions of students using

terms such as beside, in front of, behind, and next to. CONTENT.K.G.A.1

5 STRENGTH: At this point a connection needs to be made between the

amount of force or a quantitative description of a force and the effect

that force will have on something. Students intuitively know through

their physiological experiences that the more effort they put forth, the

greater the effect should be. It can be tug-of-war, kicking a ball or hitting

a ball with a bat. One way to demonstrate this is to have students gently

throw objects such as beanbags across the classroom with a small force,

an intermediate force, and a larger force. Students can then begin to see a

correlation between the distance thrown and the force exerted. Again the

distance can be measured using nonstandard or standard units or they can

use language to express qualitative comparisons.

6 STRENGTH and DIRECTION: One method of making a connection

between forces and direction is to have students push and pull cardboard

boxes filled with various amounts of books. Students will see that less

force is needed to push a box that is filled with a small number of books

as opposed to pushing a box that is filled with a greater number of heavier

books. The direction arrows can be used to show students in which

direction they should push the box. Similarly a rope can be tied around the

cardboard box and students can pull the boxes in the direction of the arrow

that the teacher places on the floor.

7 STRENGTH, DIRECTION and MOTION: Finally we are ready to

address the NGSS standard directly. It is fairly obvious that undergoing

the previous steps or using other approaches to create the same

foundational knowledge is much more effective than trying to reach the

student performance expectation without thorough student preparation.

Furthermore, since the NGSS prioritize scientific practices and crosscutting

concepts, it is important for students to actually work like scientists by

exploring the incremental steps with hands-on activities (and become

familiar with the crosscutting concepts presented in the activities). This

process will lead them to a thorough understanding of the performance the

standard requires. There are several activities that allow students to “plan

and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths

or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.”

One of the simplest is to have students work in groups

with tennis balls or some other kind of ball. Each student

has a ball (tennis balls will work well) and should use their

ball to try to deflect the direction of a moving ball (set in

motion by one member of the group) by using different

strengths when aiming for the moving ball. Students should

use directional arrows (laminated arrows, arrows drawn on

paper or cutout arrows) as a guide to what direction they

want the moving ball to go. Alternatively inclined plane

ramps can be used to set balls in motion that will deflect

the direction of a moving ball. The advantage of the inclined

plane is that the strength of the ball going down the

inclined plane can be repeated by using the same angle on

the inclined plane.

In conclusion, all the activities that have led to a deep and intuitive understanding

of motion, distance, direction, push and pulls and strength of a force will ensure

that the student has reached an appropriate level of understanding of the topic

covered by the NGSS standard.