Download The Science of Spaceflight - FMA Live!

THE SCIENCE OF SPACEFLIGHT
Honeywell, NASA, and SPACE CAMP are excited to provide your students the opportunity to learn
more about Newton in a series of hands-on, inquiry-based and fun activities. All the activities
correlate to National Science Standards, are easy to teach and are designed to enhance the FMA Live!
experience. The lesson is designed to be done in one class period.
Visit www.fmalive.com to gain exclusive access to teaching resources that will bring Forces and
Motion to life for your classroom. Teach Newton’s Three Laws of Motion with free lesson plans,
experiments, music, videos and more - all available at the Teachers’ Lounge!
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Next Generation Science Standards (Grades 5 – 8)
MOTIONS AND STABILITY, FORCES AND INTERACTIONS
• MS-PS2-1. Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two
colliding objects.
• MS-PS2-2. Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on
the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
• MS-PS2-3. Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and
magnetic forces.
• MS-PS2-4. Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational
interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects.
• MS-PS2-5. Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that
fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.
Science and Engineering Practices
• Asking Questions and Defining Problems: Ask questions that can be investigated within the scope of
the classroom, outdoor environment, and museums and other public facilities with available resources
and, when appropriate, frame a hypothesis based on observations and scientific principles. (MS-PS2-3)
• Planning and Carrying Out Investigations: Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental
design to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence that can meet the goals of the investigation.
(MS-PS2-5)
• Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions: Apply scientific ideas or principles to design
an object, tool, process or system. (MS-PS2-1)
Let us know what you think of the FMA Live! program materials and website by completing the online survey.
Copyright 2013 © Honeywell International
1
THE SCIENCE OF SPACEFLIGHT
• Engaging in Argument from Evidence: Construct and present oral and written arguments supported
by empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support or refute an explanation or a model for a
phenomenon or a solution to a problem. (MS-PS2-4)
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS2.A: Forces and Motion
• For any pair of interacting objects, the force exerted by the first object on the second object is equal in
strength to the force that the second object exerts on the first, but in the opposite direction (Newton’s
third law). (MS-PS2-1)
• The motion of an object is determined by the sum of the forces acting on it. If the total force on the
object is not zero, its motion will change. The greater the mass of the object, the greater the force
needed to achieve the same change in motion. For any given object, a larger force causes a larger
change in motion. (MS-PS2-2)
• All positions of objects and the directions of forces and motions must be described in an arbitrarily
chosen reference frame and arbitrarily chosen units of size. In order to share information with other
people, these choices must also be shared. (MS-PS2-2)
PS2.B: Types of Interactions
• Gravitational forces are always attractive. There is a gravitational force between any two masses, but it
is very small except when one or both of the objects have large mass—e.g., Earth and the sun. (MSPS2-4)
Crosscutting Concepts
• Cause and Effect : Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or
designed systems. (MS-PS2-3),(MS-PS2-5)
• Stability and Change: Explanations of stability and change in natural or designed systems can be
constructed by examining the changes over time and forces at different scales. (MS-PS2-2)
Let us know what you think of the FMA Live! program materials and website by completing the online survey.
Copyright 2013 © Honeywell International
2
THE SCIENCE OF SPACEFLIGHT
CLASSROOM DEMONSTRATIONS & ACTIVITIES
Objectives
•
Discuss Newton’s three Laws of Motion
•
Visibly demonstrate the three laws
•
Relate Newton’s laws to Spaceflight and Rocketry
•
Define vocabulary used in Newton’s laws
Materials Needed
•
Fishing line or string
•
Skateboard
•
Balloons
•
Straws
•
Eggs (1 raw, 1 hard boiled)
•
Masking tape
•
Chairs
Demonstrations
Newton’s First Law
Newton’s First Law of Motion states that an object (or body) at rest will stay at rest and an object (or body)
in motion will stay in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
A good
example is a block on the table. It will not move unless acted upon. Ask the students for a rocket
example (rocket on the launch pad).
An object that is in motion will stay in motion. Spin the jack. The jack will continue to move. Ask students
for a space example (things in orbit).
The block and the table are pushing each other, but they aren’t moving so they have balanced forces.
Push the block across the table – you added an unbalanced force to make it move, and it stopped
because friction acted on it while it was moving to stop the motion. Examples of unbalanced forces are
gravity, friction and drag. Ask the students what would happen to the book without friction? In space,
where would we see objects in motion staying in motion? (Rockets, satellites, debris in orbit, Saturn V
after escaping Earth orbit are a few examples)
Let us know what you think of the FMA Live! program materials and website by completing the online survey.
Copyright 2013 © Honeywell International
3
THE SCIENCE OF SPACEFLIGHT
Newton’s Second Law
Newton’s Second Law of Motion says that force equals mass times acceleration. Force is a push or pull.
Mass is the substance that makes up an object, and acceleration is a change in motion. How hard do
you have to push or pull on something to make it move? It depends on the mass of the object.
Demonstrate the rocket balloon: Thread fishing line through a straw (straight – non-flexible). Tape fishing
line to two walls (or you can have students hold the ends as long as they are tight). Inflate a balloon and
pinch shut with a clothes pin. Tape the inflated balloon to the straw. Have a countdown and release the
clothes pin to send the balloon down the string. The air leaves the balloon with some amount of force.
When the air is gone, the force is zero and the acceleration stops.
The space example will be a rocket. A rocket holds a certain amount of fuel which helps to determine its
mass. As the rocket engines burn the fuel, the mass decreases and the amount of gas being released
from the rocket increases (increased thrust) resulting in its acceleration.
Newton’s Third Law
Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Repeat the balloon rocket. The action is the air rushing out of the balloon. Ask students what the
reaction is (movement of the balloon in the opposite direction). In actual rockets, fuel is burned by the
engines creating gas that rushes out of the rocket. When the gas is released the rocket moves in the
opposite direction–up!
Demonstration: push me –pull me. Have two students sit on skate boards facing each with skate board
ends touching. Students will put their hands up, palms touching and gently push toward each other.
They will both be pushed back. The action was pushing on each other’s hands and the reaction was
being pushed apart.
Have the students sit on the skateboards about five feet apart and facing each
other. Have each pull hand over hand at your direction. The students will move toward each other.
Have students start apart from each other again while holding the rope. This time have only one student
pull the rope.
Let us know what you think of the FMA Live! program materials and website by completing the online survey.
Copyright 2013 © Honeywell International
4
THE SCIENCE OF SPACEFLIGHT
Obey the Law
Now that we are all experts on the Law, we will go to court. After the demonstrations we will decide which
law has been presented.
Presenter will choose from the activities on the activity list randomly. After each demonstration, allow
students time to lock in their votes for which law of motion the activity demonstrates. When voting is over,
choose someone to explain the correct answer and elaborate as needed.
Activities
Newton’s First Law
Eggs: For this activity you will need two eggs, one hard boiled and one raw. Spin both eggs at
approximately the same speed. Observe the eggs to see which spins faster, spins straighter and spins
longer. Try the experiment again, but this time lightly touch the eggs to stop them immediately after
spinning them. Why do you think there is a difference in the motions of the eggs? (The hard-boiled egg
will spin faster because of the solid yoke, while the liquid yoke of the raw egg will steal momentum as it
sloshes around. The same motion of the yoke in a raw egg will restart a raw egg that you have stopped
from spinning by transferring momentum back to the shell.)
Newton’s Second Law
Skateboard Push Me: For this activity you will need a student, two objects of different masses and a
skateboard. Choose two objects that are of noticeably different sizes. Tape or affix the smaller object to
the skateboard while the student pushes them along a level, obstruction-free path. Record the distance
traveled and mark where the skateboard stopped. Repeat the experiment with the larger object. Which
object travels farther? Which object travels faster? Was it harder to push the smaller object or the
heavier object? (If the force applied to both objects is equal, the heavier object will travel more slowly but
will have more momentum and will travel farther.)
Newton’s Third Law
Balloon Car: For this activity you will need a length of string, two chairs, some masking tape, a balloon
and a straw. Thread the string through the straw and tape each end to a different chair, carefully pulling
the string taut and position the straw near one of the chairs. Fill up the “balloon car” with air, pinch the
end shut and measure the circumference of the balloon. Tape the balloon to the straw, with the pinched
Let us know what you think of the FMA Live! program materials and website by completing the online survey.
Copyright 2013 © Honeywell International
5
THE SCIENCE OF SPACEFLIGHT
end towards the closer of the chairs, then release the balloon. Measure the distance the balloon travels,
then remove the balloon from the straw and reposition the straw at the starting point. Refill the balloon
with a different amount of air (either a larger or smaller circumference) and repeat the experiment. Does
a larger volume of air make the balloon car travel farther? Is there a correlation between the
circumference of the balloon and the distance traveled?
Conclusion
Review the laws with students being sure they can state them and offer an example – a space example, if
possible. Tell students the these laws provide the basis of rocket science – by helping us determine
maximum payload, fuel requirements, types of fuel – but are only the beginning! There is so much left to
learn.
Don’t forget to visit www.spacecamp.com for the latest information on educational programs offered by
the U.S. Space & Rocket Center!
Let us know what you think of the FMA Live! program materials and website by completing the online survey.
Copyright 2013 © Honeywell International
6