May the Force Be with You!

Marsha Riddle Buly and Nicole Melvin

From jumping rope to climbing on the jungle gym, regardless of their age, children are always on the move. Students’ fascination with moving objects—as well as with how they themselves move—can inspire numerous physical science investigations. In these activities, force and motion come to life when children explore how balance influences their own movement and design their own investigations to explain various phenomena.

This Month’s Trade Books
Go, Go, Go! Kids on the Move
By Stephen R. Swinburne.
32 pp. Boyd Mills Press. 2002.
ISBN 1590780388.

Synopsis

A child’s world is constantly full of movement, especially at the primary level. This energetic book poses the simple question, “What’s your favorite way to move?” Through the use of color photography, children’s movements—from swinging to dancing—are captured, answering that very question. Children’s curiosities will be visually stimulated by the photographs.

Why Doesn’t the Earth Fall Up? And Other Not Such Dumb Questions About Motion
By Vicki Cobb.
Illustrations by Ted Enik.
40 pp. E.P. Dutton. 1988.
ISBN 0525672532.

Synopsis

Children are full of questions that can lead to authentic science investigations. This book focuses on nine questions that upper elementary students will undoubtedly have. The illustrator’s cartoons depict the kinds of comments we have all heard too often from upper elementary students and could be used to engage students through laughter as the exploration begins. A simple, scientifically accurate answer is provided for each question.

Curricular Connections

Students in grades K–4 should know that “an object’s motion can be described by tracing and measuring its position over time” and that “the position and motion of objects can be changed by pushing or pulling. The size of the change is related to the strength of the push or pull” (NRC 1996, pp. 127). The NSES for grades 5–8 expand on these basic concepts and provide additional opportunities for students to engage in the exploration of force and motion.

Even without the Standards identifying the importance of force and motion, there is perhaps no concept more meaningful to children of all ages—we learn very early that when we apply the appropriate amount of force a desired motion will usually occur. Toddlers learn that exerting force propels them forward. Younger students learn that with a bit of force and balancing, a bicycle will move forward, whereas students in upper elementary grades quickly learn that balls, skis, snowboards, skateboards, and roller blades will head downhill—sometimes in a direction that was not intended—when a bit of force is exerted.

The trade books described in this month’s column provide students with opportunities to examine, measure, reflect upon, and discuss how forces of various origins are used to produce and control motion. To analyze what we often take for granted is a difficult but useful task. It requires that we look at things from a different perspective and consider what we may previously have overlooked. The selected books and suggested activities help students examine common activities from a different perspective.

Trade Book–Inspired Investigations

In the primary classroom, students can develop their sense of force and motion by brainstorming, investigating, illustrating, and writing about the movements they make in one day. Go, Go, Go! Kids on the Move gets young students thinking about movements they make throughout the day and how they occur.

Beginning the study of force and motion by focusing on meaningful connections can help develop curiosity for the sometimes-skeptical upper elementary student. Why Doesn’t the Earth Fall Up? And Other Not Such Dumb Questions About Motion helps upper elementary students begin to explore the concepts of force and motion with inquiry.

For Grades K–3: Movement and Balance

Simply asking students about the kind of movements they make at recess begins to uncover what students know about the force and motion their bodies exert every day.

Just before dismissing students for a recess, prompt them to think about the different movements they make while outside playing. Leave it at that until they come back in—let students’ ideas about force and motion percolate while at recess.

When students return, have paper and crayons available for each student to illustrate one of the movements they noticed while outside. Next, have students brainstorm the ways they moved while at recess. Make a complete list of students’ ideas on chart paper. Hang the list somewhere in the classroom that is visible and allows students to add to it. Let students hang their illustrations as well. Invite students to add to the list as they continue to think about the ways their bodies move.

In a day or so, after students have had a chance to add to the list and have created a schema for movement, read aloud Go, Go, Go! Kids on the Move, asking students to mentally monitor if they have made the particular movement the book is illustrating that day. This will allow students the opportunity to explore many types of movement—some that they might not have explicitly thought of as movement.

Now, talk to students about what happens when we move. How do we balance on one foot? Kneel down? Swing on the monkey bars? Cartwheel? Why can we stand on one foot and not fall over? Do a push-up? Using these prompts and others that your students come up with will move the discussion toward balance in our movement. Students may notice that while they are standing, they have equal weight or are balanced on both sides of their body as if an imaginary line runs straight through them. When they run, that balance changes and more weight is distributed to the front part of their bodies.

As the discussion progresses, have students demonstrate the line of balance their bodies have. Ask one student to stand in front of the class. While that student is standing, with equal weight on both feet, demonstrate the line of balance with a piece of yarn dangled in front of the student. Now, with the yarn in the same place, have the student shift his/her weight from side to side. Ask the class what they notice about the amount of the student’s body on each side of the yarn as the student moves. Reinforce this concept with other students and movements (such as standing on your head, doing a pushup, kneeling down, skipping, or skiing).

After students understand how they balance while moving, have them create a book like Go, Go, Go! Kids on the Move. They could start with the question, “What’s your favorite way to move?” and add their favorite movements on remaining pages. As students illustrate their writing, have them draw the line of balance in each picture and color each side of the person a different color to illustrate their understanding of how we keep our balance when we are in motion. When students finish, have them share their books on force and motion with parents and friends.

For Grades 4–6: Investigating Questions

This sequence of activities can help students begin to explore the science concepts of force and motion while engaging in oral communication, reading for a purpose, writing for investigation, and doing authentic inquiry.

Start with any one of the questions from the book Why Doesn’t the Earth Fall Up? And Other Not Such Dumb Questions About Motion. We found the first question in the book, “Why does a rolling ball stop rolling?” to be a simple one to start with. Write the question on the chalkboard one morning before students come to school. Just let the question germinate without any comments from you. Then, a day or two later, bring several balls of various sizes and weights to class.

Before bringing the balls out, invite students to discuss the question on the board and list their ideas. Next, bring out the balls and have students predict whether a specific ball will stop if you roll it and predict where it will stop. Have students discuss the reasons why they are making the predictions they make. Roll one ball across the room while the students observe. Talk about what happens to the ball—did it stop? Did it stop where the students thought it would? Why or why not?

Next, have students break into small groups to investigate the motion of one ball with a variety of forces. If different students rolled the ball, did it go a different distance? If it was dropped from something did it roll differently? If a human hand pushed another object, which then pushed the ball, what happened? Have the students record their observations.

To extend the exploration, line up all the balls, perhaps five or six. Have students predict which ball will roll the farthest and provide a rationalization for their prediction. Write down the predictions and the reasons. Test it! As you test the students’ hypotheses, graph the distance that each ball rolled and discuss the factors that could change the motion.

Now students are ready to read about why a rolling ball stops rolling in Why Doesn’t the Earth Fall Up?—they are engaged and background knowledge has been developed. The new vocabulary that students will encounter in this reading, such as friction, is explained in context. With the development of the background understandings and curiosities, students can be asked to explain the force called friction, which is clearly described in the book.

From this point, list the other questions in the book and have small groups choose one. Each group is to read about the question and devise a way to illustrate the question, state a prediction, and design a test. If possible, encourage students to conduct their tests and share their results.

From here, a natural extension would be to solicit other questions related to force and motion that students may have. Assign pairs or small groups to research the question and then design a way to explore and test their prediction. The end product, with much scaffolding, could be a class book, a fitting sequel to Why Doesn’t the Earth Fall Up? And Other Not Such Dumb Questions About Motion.

Marsha Riddle Buly is an assistant professor of elementary education, and Nicole Melvin is a graduate student in elementary education, both at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.

Resources

National Research Council (NRC). 1996. National Science Education Standards. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Additional trade books related to force and motion:

Cole, J. 1998. The Magic School Bus Plays Ball: A Book About Forces. New York: Scholastic.
Lafferty, P. 2000. Eyewitness: Force and Motion. New York: Dorling Kindersley.
Riley, P. 1998. Forces and Movement (Straightforward Science). London: Franklin Watts.
Schaefer, L. 1999. Start and Stop (The Way Things Move). Minneapolis, Minn.: Capstone.

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