Push and Pull Force and Motion Force and Motion Vocabulary ...
Grade 3: Forces and Interactions: Push and Pull
Force and Motion Force and Motion Vocabulary Woodlands Resources for Forces
Feel the Force Pushes and Pulls in Context of Physical Education (Suggested time: two 45 minute lessons)
Objectives Students will learn that forces are required to enable them to start, stop, speed up, slow down, change direction, and that their bodies (muscles) supply these forces that forces are required to propel objects that objects, including their own bodies, are pulled down by gravity, and that forces are required to counteract gravity Vocabulary force, direction, strength, resist/resistance, oppose/opposite direction, gravity, cause and effect Directional words: forwards, backwards, left, right, before, after, around, in a circle, through, past, beyond
Activity #1 Pushing and Pulling Begin this activity by explaining that students will be involved in physical activity like in gym class but we will be thinking scientifically. In pairs students (of roughly the same size and strength) will move one partner over a line or off a mat while the second student resists. Switch jobs and then discuss what was happening: Pushing and Pulling. Make larger groups of four students. Two will engage in motion while other two observe. You can switch roles also. Only allow one movement (a push or pull). Observe how students are moving. How are the student’s legs moving, changing? How are their arms moving or changing? Next, choose one pair to play the game while entire class observes. Ask these questions: Who is pushing/pulling and who is being pushed/pulled? Introduce the words ‘resist’ and ‘oppose’. Agree that to resist or oppose means pulling or pushing the other way. Ask the two performers what they feel when they push/pull the other person. They should feel the force of the other person resisting or opposing in the opposite direction. These pushes and pulls are called forces.
Activity #2 Ups and Downs Working with pairs have one student squat on the ground with arms folded, then slowly rise to standing position, and then up onto their toes. o In what direction were you moving? (up) o What force/s were you using/ ( push with legs and feet) o What was the direction of the force? (downward)
o What do you notice about the direction of the force compared with the direction of movement? (they are opposite) Did they feel any resistance or opposition to pushing themselves up? This force pushing us downward is called gravity. All objects are pulled downward toward Earth by gravity.
Activity #3 On the Move Ask students to walk/jog/run around the space, following various instructions: slow down, speed up, turn sharply to the right/left, stop and go the other way, run backwards/sideways, run in a small circle… Discuss what actions the student have performed and what forces they were using to do it. Mostly the forces were pushes with their legs and feet against the floor.
Activity #4 Throwing, Catching, Hitting, Kicking Students are arranged in small groups so that they can throw and catch soft objects such as soft balls, bean-bags or rolling hoops. Ask how the students are starting the objects to move and how they are stopping the object to catch it. Have a few students demonstrate hitting the objects with a bat or racket. Students should observe that objects change direction and speed when it is struck by bat or racket.
Activity #5 What Goes Up Ask students to take turns throwing a ball or bean-bag into the air and catching it as it comes down. Ask other to observe. What is the ball doing? (slowing down, speeding up, changing direction, stopping) Then ask o What is making the object slow down, stop, change direction and fall back? o Can you see anything pushing or pulling it to cause these changes? o Then what is causing them to happen – because we know that changes of this kind need a force (a push or pull) to make them happen? Students will see that gravity caused this stop, change of direction and return to the Earth. o Does this mean that some forces cannot be seen? OR; o Does this mean you can have a force without anything there? Conclude that you can have a force that cannot be seen and this is one example. But that is not the same as saying that there is nothing there. There is something and it is a real force—as real as any other, because it makes things slow down, fall, change direction etc. We may not be able to see the force of gravity (the cause), but we can see what it does (the effects). Now toss the ball or bean-bag up in the air for another student to catch. The rest of the class observes and describes the movement. Ask what makes it curve and not move in a straight line?
Draw the ball in several different positions that it would occupy . Connect the path with a continuous line. Add labels to describe or explain what is happening to the ball at different positions in its path.
Force and Motion Force and Motion Vocabulary Woodlands Resources for Forces
Feel the Force Pushes and Pulls in Context of Physical Education (Suggested time: two 45 minute lessons)
Objectives Students will learn that forces are required to enable them to start, stop, speed up, slow down, change direction, and that their bodies (muscles) supply these forces that forces are required to propel objects that objects, including their own bodies, are pulled down by gravity, and that forces are required to counteract gravity Vocabulary force, direction, strength, resist/resistance, oppose/opposite direction, gravity, cause and effect Directional words: forwards, backwards, left, right, before, after, around, in a circle, through, past, beyond
Activity #1 Pushing and Pulling Begin this activity by explaining that students will be involved in physical activity like in gym class but we will be thinking scientifically. In pairs students (of roughly the same size and strength) will move one partner over a line or off a mat while the second student resists. Switch jobs and then discuss what was happening: Pushing and Pulling. Make larger groups of four students. Two will engage in motion while other two observe. You can switch roles also. Only allow one movement (a push or pull). Observe how students are moving. How are the student’s legs moving, changing? How are their arms moving or changing? Next, choose one pair to play the game while entire class observes. Ask these questions: Who is pushing/pulling and who is being pushed/pulled? Introduce the words ‘resist’ and ‘oppose’. Agree that to resist or oppose means pulling or pushing the other way. Ask the two performers what they feel when they push/pull the other person. They should feel the force of the other person resisting or opposing in the opposite direction. These pushes and pulls are called forces.
Activity #2 Ups and Downs Working with pairs have one student squat on the ground with arms folded, then slowly rise to standing position, and then up onto their toes. o In what direction were you moving? (up) o What force/s were you using/ ( push with legs and feet) o What was the direction of the force? (downward)
o What do you notice about the direction of the force compared with the direction of movement? (they are opposite) Did they feel any resistance or opposition to pushing themselves up? This force pushing us downward is called gravity. All objects are pulled downward toward Earth by gravity.
Activity #3 On the Move Ask students to walk/jog/run around the space, following various instructions: slow down, speed up, turn sharply to the right/left, stop and go the other way, run backwards/sideways, run in a small circle… Discuss what actions the student have performed and what forces they were using to do it. Mostly the forces were pushes with their legs and feet against the floor.
Activity #4 Throwing, Catching, Hitting, Kicking Students are arranged in small groups so that they can throw and catch soft objects such as soft balls, bean-bags or rolling hoops. Ask how the students are starting the objects to move and how they are stopping the object to catch it. Have a few students demonstrate hitting the objects with a bat or racket. Students should observe that objects change direction and speed when it is struck by bat or racket.
Activity #5 What Goes Up Ask students to take turns throwing a ball or bean-bag into the air and catching it as it comes down. Ask other to observe. What is the ball doing? (slowing down, speeding up, changing direction, stopping) Then ask o What is making the object slow down, stop, change direction and fall back? o Can you see anything pushing or pulling it to cause these changes? o Then what is causing them to happen – because we know that changes of this kind need a force (a push or pull) to make them happen? Students will see that gravity caused this stop, change of direction and return to the Earth. o Does this mean that some forces cannot be seen? OR; o Does this mean you can have a force without anything there? Conclude that you can have a force that cannot be seen and this is one example. But that is not the same as saying that there is nothing there. There is something and it is a real force—as real as any other, because it makes things slow down, fall, change direction etc. We may not be able to see the force of gravity (the cause), but we can see what it does (the effects). Now toss the ball or bean-bag up in the air for another student to catch. The rest of the class observes and describes the movement. Ask what makes it curve and not move in a straight line?
Draw the ball in several different positions that it would occupy . Connect the path with a continuous line. Add labels to describe or explain what is happening to the ball at different positions in its path.
