Exploration
Acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables – the net force acting on the object and the mass of the object. Using a Full-Atwood’s Machine you will explore the relationship between these variables to understand Newton’s Second Law of Motion.
Objective
Exploration
What is velocity? Velocity is often defined as speed with direction and speed is often defined as how fast or slow an object is traveling. But what exactly does being fast or slow mean? How can we represent an object’s velocity with an equation, graph, or other model? What is acceleration?
Exploration Part 1
Previously you learned that the net force acting on an object is related to the object’s motion. The net force determines whether the velocity of an object will change. This is described in Newton’s First Law of Motion:
“An object at rest will remain at rest or an object in motion will remain in uniform motion unless acted upon by an outside force”.
Using office supplies, students will design, build, test, and iterate on a crash cushion that will reduce the force experienced by a cart as it crashes into a wall.
This cool demonstration was brought to us via Twitter by Earth and Environmental Science Teacher, Ryan Hollister (follow him at @phanertic).
This lesson has been developed for Grade 8 students.
Please see video link as well as attached Hyperdoc.
Phenomena or Driving Question: Make a vehicle that travels one meter powered only by two balloons
Lesson description: In this unit of study, Newton’s Laws will be used to explain the forces and motions of objects on Earth and in Space. This Lesson is the Engineering design project at the end of the unit.
PE’s addressed: MS-PS2-1, MS-PS-2-2, MS-ETS1-1, MS-ETS1-4
This lesson is courtesy of Heather Wygant and Susan Paulsen, Santa Clara, CA
You can find an overview of the lesson here: http://bit.ly/2oeSMvL
