Lesson Plans for the Unit

Lesson 1
Materials: balls and Styrofoam and straws
1. Begin the unit by playing with balls and discussing how they move. Play Charades where kids act out a game they play with a ball.
2. Discuss how we had to get the ball started with a push or a pull. That will be called a force from now on. Give the students balls. The students describe and play with the balls. They will drop the ball 5 times on a rug and on a floor from waist level. Discuss again how it moves higher on the floor.
3. The students repeat the experiment with a little more push to the ball and see what happens. Discuss.
4. The students receive Styrofoam and a straw. They try to blow the Styrofoam plate across the room over the table, the floor and the rug. Discuss which has the easiest trip. Introduce the word friction.

Lesson 2
Materials: balls, Styrofoam plates, straw, sandpaper, ramps
1. Review what we did last week.
2. Review how many different ways we got the balls to move and the Styrofoam to move.
3. Discuss how certain things move easier on the floor than on the rug. Review the concept of friction.
4. The students use the ramp with the balls and roll it over different surfaces, like sandpaper, aluminum foil, rugs, and pillows. Discuss which surface had the most friction and which had the least.
5. The students use the ramp with the Styrofoam and straws and roll it over different surfaces, like sandpaper, aluminum foil, rugs, and pillows. Discuss which surface had the most friction and which had the least.

Lesson 3
Materials: balls, little cars, ramps, aluminum foil, sandpaper
1. The students review what we did last week.
2. Review how many different ways we got the balls to move and what materials slowed it down.
3. Review the concepts of friction and force.
4. The students use the ramp with little cars and roll it over different surfaces, like sandpaper, aluminum foil, rugs, and pillows. Discuss which surface had the most friction and which had the least.
5. Draw pictures of what we did and discovered.

Lesson 4
Materials: pencils and paper
1. Review all they have been doing. Write down all the ideas of what they have found.
2. Discuss how an experiment goes.
3. Start asking questions that begin with "I wonder what would happen if…"
4. Make a list of 4 "I wonder" questions and let the children think about a answer about moving things.
5. List questions in order of preference, and decide which they would most like to work with.
6. Let them write down the question.
7. Let them think of what they could do with this question.

Lesson 5
Materials: meter sticks, different size balls
1. The students review what we did last week.
2. Review how many different ways we got the balls to move and what materials slowed them down.
3. Review the concept of friction and force. See worksheet section.
4. Introduce the idea of measurement. Practice measuring the distance of things with meter sticks.
5. Roll a ball and measure how far it goes.

Lesson 6
Materials: balls, marbles, ramps, aluminum foil, sandpaper, meter sticks, worksheet
1. The students review what we did last lesson.
2. Review how many different ways we got the balls to move and what materials slowed them down.
3. Review the concept of friction and force.
4. The students use the ramp with little balls and roll it over different surfaces, like sandpaper, aluminum foil, rugs, and pillows. Discuss which surface had the most friction and which had the least.
5. Measure how far the things move.
6. Draw pictures of what we did and discovered.

Lesson 7
The children went to The Franklin Institute. They did worksheet 2 at the museum. We discussed the trip. The children wrote journals about the day.

Lesson 8/9
Materials: materials for experiment, paper, pencils
1. The students review what we did last week. The children make decisions about what they are going to explore in their own experiment.
2. The children make predictions about which object will answer their exploration into movement better.
3. The children try out their experiment. Set up a measuring chart so they can keep records of what they do.
4. The children try their own experiment out again using the measurement table.
5.The students try this set up twice. They analyze their results and write what they found.

Lesson 10
Materials: Student folder with data from the experiment
1. Ask the students to discuss their experiments.
2. Ask the students to write a good copy of what they did in their experiment.
3. The students decorate their experiments.
4. The students review the experiments that they were doing in the class. They orally summarize where they are and start writing over the information they have gathered. Ask them to think about their results and tell about them.
5. The students rewrite a good copy of the experiment.

Description of the Program
How It Meets School District Goals
Lesson Plans
Worksheet for Lessons
Examples of Kids Experiments
Franklin Institute-Helpful Exhibits
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