6172RB Science a STEM approach Year 2 low res watermark

Lesson 4
Physical sciences
FORCED TO MOVE
Lesson plan
Introduction:
1. In pairs, students play a different version of the Fish force game at by selecting the create option instead. Students take turns to create a game for the other
student to play. As a class, discuss what students found was the trickiest part about knowing how
much force to apply, the position to place the cannon, and what obstacles they navigated. QP
PC
Development:
2. Load the video showing a game of tug of war in action at . Before
viewing the video, ask students to predict which team they think will win—the team with two
children or the individual child. View the video and compare students’ predictions to the result.
Discuss the questions, What force was being applied by each team? Why do you think the individual
child won? If both children in the losing team were as big and strong as the child in the winning
team, who do you think would win? Does a heavy object always need more than one person to
move it? QP PC PA
3. Give each student a copy of page 127. Individually, students predict how much force they think will
be required to push and pull a tissue box and a bucket, when they are empty and when they are
filled with sand. Students record their predictions on page 127, using a 5-point scale, from a small
amount to a large amount. QP
4. Divide the class into groups of four and give each group an empty tissue box and an empty bucket.
As a group, students work outside in a sandpit, to investigate how much force is needed to push
and pull each object. Students will need to measure a controlled distance that the objects will be
pushed and a controlled height that the objects will be pulled to. All group members should test
each object and discuss what they think the result should be. This will minimise the variation in
student’s individual results that are greatly impacted by the strength of the invidividual. Using
page 127, students individually record their group’s result for each test. Students may be
encouraged to check their results by comparing two objects at a time to see if the results for each
object are reasonable. PC PA
5. Return to the classroom and ask groups to pair up to compare their results. For any differing results,
each group should record the other group’s result using a different colour. E
Reflection:
6. Individually, students review both groups answers on page 127. Students then communicate their
understanding of how the mass of an object affects the amount of force needed to move it by
completing page 128. C
Differentiation:
• Less capable students may work with an adult to complete page 128 orally. Students may also
be given each object to compare again before providing an answer.
• More capable students may be encouraged to write their own sentences comparing the amount
of force needed to move different stationery or craft supplies, such as a pencil needs less force
than a stapler does to move it from one position to another.
© R.I.C. Publications
Low resolution display copy
126 Science:
A STEM APPROACH
YEAR
2
978-1-925431-95-7 R.I.C. Publications® – www.ricpublications.com.au