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Resources
Human Resources
Expert in science/physics, staff to facilitate trip (i.e. transport of students)
Preparation
Find an expert in science/physics from a local secondary school, prepare paperwork for off-site visit, make travel arrangements.
Goals, messages & concepts
Specific goals
- To learn about the theory which accompanies the experiments students have carried out in the previous 2 units.
- To deepen students’ understanding of the Laws of Motion and aerodynamics.
- To provide inspiration and background knowledge for the upcoming activities.
Specific messages
- How motion works has fascinated many people throughout history and scientists have done similar research to you!
- Science is fun and challenging.
- Many phenomena can be explained by specific rules called the Laws of Physics
Main terms
- The forces of nature
- Laws of motion
- Aerodynamics
- Air pressure
- Gravity
Practices & skills
STEM practices
- Asking questions and defining problems
Soft skills
-Management skills
-Course of activity
step 1
Introduce the Learning Units which follow this one:
- Rockets > air pressure
- Dropping eggs > gravity
- Dropping bricks on eggs > gravity
step 2
Remind students of the aim of the trip to hear from a science teacher, and discuss what to find out from the expert before travelling to the local secondary school.
step 3
Welcome and introduction form the expert.
step 4
Engaging presentation about forces of nature with many examples and demonstrations (aerodynamics, air pressure, gravity, etc.).
step 5
Time for students to ask questions and gather information from the expert.
step 6
Students have a go at some of the experiments previously demonstrated in order to formulate more in depth questions such as:
- What is air?
- How does gravity work?
- How do you slow down a fall? (Function of parachute)
- How do you soften a fall? (Distribution of force when landing by material absorbing the impact, increasing contact area with the ground)
step 7
End of field trip and return to school, try to put learned experiences in context. For example: collecting different objects along the way and dropping them (safely) from a bridge/height, see how it falls.