Download Science with Toys - Georgia Standards

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The following instructional plan is part of a GaDOE collection of Unit Frameworks, Performance Tasks, examples of Student Work, and Teacher Commentary. Many more GaDOE approved
instructional plans are available by using the Search Standards feature located on GeorgiaStandards.Org.
Georgia Performance Standards Framework for Science
Unit Organizer: “Science with Toys”
(Approximate Time: Eight weeks)
OVERVIEW: This unit will focus on students acquiring a conceptual understanding of energy conservation, heat transfer processes, and the
relationship between force, mass, and acceleration through the study of familiar toys. Students will investigate how simple machines can be
combined to build toys that are capable of completing a task with minimal or no human intervention. Throughout this unit students will be
expected to analyze scientific data by collecting, using, interpreting and comparing experimental results. Additionally, the students will
continue developing their skills on communicating scientific ideas and activities clearly by writing laboratory reports and a research paper that
describes the design of their culminating project.
STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN THIS UNIT:
Focus Standards:
S8P2. Students will be familiar with the forms and transformations of energy.
a. Explain energy transformation in terms of the Law of Conservation of Energy.
b. Explain the relationship between potential and kinetic energy.
c. Compare and contrast the different forms of energy (heat, light, electricity, mechanical motion, and sound) and their characteristics.
d. Describe how heat can be transferred through matter by the collisions of atoms (conduction) or through space (radiation). In a liquid
or gas, currents will facilitate the transfer of heat (convection).
S8P3. Students will investigate relationship between force, mass, and the motion of objects.
a. Determine the relationship between velocity and acceleration.
b. Demonstrate the effect of balanced and unbalanced forces on an object in terms of gravity, inertia, and friction.
c. Demonstrate the effect of simple machines (lever, inclined plane, pulley, wedge, screw, and wheel and axle) on work.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Physical Science  Science with Toys Unit  Middle School
May 10, 2007  Page 1 of 10
Copyright 2007 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Teachers
Georgia Performance Standards Framework for Science
SUPPORT STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN THIS UNIT:
Characteristic of Science:
S8CS1. Students will explore the importance of curiosity, honesty, openness, and skepticism in science and will exhibit these traits in
their own efforts to understand how the world works.
a. Understand the importance of—and keep—honest, clear, and accurate records in science.
b. Understand that hypotheses can be valuable even if they turn out not to be completely accurate.
S8CS2. Students will use standard safety practices for all classroom laboratory and field investigations.
a. Follow correct procedures for use of scientific apparatus.
b. Demonstrate appropriate techniques in all laboratory situations.
c. Follow correct protocol for identifying and reporting safety problems and violations.
S8CS3. Students will have the computation and estimation skills necessary for analyzing data and following scientific explanations.
a. Analyze scientific data by using, interpreting, and comparing numbers in several equivalent forms, such as integers, fractions,
decimals, and percents.
b. Find the mean, median, and mode and use them to analyze a set of scientific data.
c. Apply the metric system to scientific investigations that include metric to metric conversions (i.e., centimeters to meters).
d. Decide what degree of precision is adequate, and round off appropriately.
e. Address the relationship between accuracy and precision.
Use ratios and proportions, including constant rates, in appropriate problems.
S8CS4. Students will use tools and instruments for observing, measuring, and manipulating equipment and materials in scientific
activities utilizing safe laboratory procedures.
a. Use appropriate technology to store and retrieve scientific information in topical, alphabetical, numerical, and keyword files, and
create simple files.
b. Use appropriate tools and units for measuring objects and/or substances.
c. Learn and use standard safety practices when conducting scientific investigations.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Physical Science  Science with Toys Unit  Middle School
May 10, 2007  Page 2 of 10
Copyright 2007 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Teachers
Georgia Performance Standards Framework for Science
S8CS5. Students will use the ideas of system, model, change, and scale in exploring scientific and technological matters.
a. Observe and explain how parts can be related to other parts in a system such as the role of simple machines in complex machines.
b. Understand that different models (such as physical replicas, pictures, and analogies) can be used to represent the same thing.
S8CS6. Students will communicate scientific ideas and activities clearly.
a. Write clear, step-by-step instructions for conducting scientific investigations, operating a piece of equipment, or following a
procedure.
b. Write for scientific purposes incorporating information from a circle, bar, or line graph, data tables, diagrams, and symbols.
c. Organize scientific information in appropriate tables, charts, and graphs, and identify relationships they reveal.
S8CS7. Students will question scientific claims and arguments effectively.
a. Question claims based on vague attributions (such as “Leading doctors say...”) or on statements made by people outside the area
of their particular expertise.
b. Identify the flaws of reasoning in arguments that are based on poorly designed research (e.g., facts intermingled with opinion,
conclusions based on insufficient evidence).
c. Question the value of arguments based on small samples of data, biased samples, or samples for which there was no control.
d. Recognize that there may be more than one way to interpret a given set of findings.
Nature of Science:
S8CS8. Students will be familiar with the characteristics of scientific knowledge and how it is achieved.
Students will apply the following to scientific concepts:
a. When similar investigations give different results, the scientific challenge is to judge whether the differences are trivial or
significant, which often requires further study. Even with similar results, scientists may wait until an investigation has been
repeated many times before accepting the results as meaningful.
b. When new experimental results are inconsistent with an existing, well-established theory, scientists may pursue further
experimentation to determine whether the results are flawed or the theory requires modification.
c. As prevailing theories are challenged by new information, scientific knowledge may change.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Physical Science  Science with Toys Unit  Middle School
May 10, 2007  Page 3 of 10
Copyright 2007 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Teachers
Georgia Performance Standards Framework for Science
S8CS9. Students will understand the features of the process of scientific inquiry.
Students will apply the following to inquiry learning practices:
a. Investigations are conducted for different reasons, which include exploring new phenomena, confirming previous results, testing
how well a theory predicts, and comparing different theories. Scientific investigations usually involve collecting evidence,
reasoning, devising hypotheses, and formulating explanations to make sense of collected evidence.
b. Scientific investigations usually involve collecting evidence, reasoning, devising hypotheses, and formulating explanations to
make sense of collected evidence.
c. Scientific experiments investigate the effect of one variable on another. All other variables are kept constant.
d. Scientists often collaborate to design research. To prevent this bias, scientists conduct independent studies of the same questions.
e. Accurate record keeping, data sharing, and replication of results are essential for maintaining an investigator’s credibility with
other scientists and society.
f. Scientists use technology and mathematics to enhance the process of scientific inquiry.
g. The ethics of science require that special care must be taken and used for human subjects and animals in scientific research.
Scientists must adhere to the appropriate rules and guidelines when conducting research.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS:
Students will understand that:
1. Energy appears in different forms such as mechanical energy, gravitational energy, heat energy, and electric and magnetic energy.
2. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but is only changed from one form into another.
3. Every object exerts gravitational force on every other object. The force depends on the mass of the objects and the distance between them.
4. Transformations of energy usually release some energy typically in the form of heat.
5. Heat energy results due to the disorderly motion of molecules.
6. Temperature changes as heat gets transferred.
7. Heat transfer occurs by conduction, convection, or radiation.
8. Velocity is speed in a particular direction and can be written as a positive or negative number.
9. Acceleration is how fast velocity changes and can be written as a positive or negative number.
10. Balanced forces result in an object remaining at rest or moving at constant velocity.
11. Simple machines are all around us, they reduce the effort to do work.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Physical Science  Science with Toys Unit  Middle School
May 10, 2007  Page 4 of 10
Copyright 2007 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Teachers
Georgia Performance Standards Framework for Science
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Where do toys/machines get their energy from and what do they do with it?
How do toys/machines gain potential energy and turn it into kinetic energy?
Why can’t toys work without having to replace the batteries?
How is “going fast” and “speeding up” different when you’re describing your toy car’s movement?
Why are stopped cars difficult to move and moving cars difficult to stop?
Where do we find simple machines and how do they make life easier?
CONCEPTS:
Energy, kinetic energy, potential energy, Law of Conservation of Energy, mechanical energy, gravitational energy, heat, electric energy,
magnetic energy, gravitational force, mass, distance, temperature, conduction, convection, radiation, molecules, atoms, velocity, speed,
acceleration, balance forces, force, simple machine, inertia, friction force, work, unbalanced force
LANGUAGE:
Acceleration
Atoms
Balance forces
Conduction
Convection
Distance
Effort
Electric energy
Energy
Force
Friction force
Gravitational energy
Gravitational force
Heat
Inclined plane
Inertia
Kinetic energy
Law of Conservation of Energy
Lever
Light
Magnetic energy
Mass
Mechanical energy
Molecules
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Physical Science  Science with Toys Unit  Middle School
May 10, 2007  Page 5 of 10
Copyright 2007 © All Rights Reserved
Potential energy
Pulley
Radiation
Screw
Simple machine
Speed
Temperature
Unbalance force
Velocity
Wedge
Wheel and axle
Work
One Stop Shop For Educators
The following instructional plan is part of a GaDOE collection of Unit Frameworks, Performance Tasks, examples of Student Work, and Teacher Commentary. Many more GaDOE approved
instructional plans are available by using the Search Standards feature located on GeorgiaStandards.Org.
Georgia Performance Standards Framework for Science
MISCONCEPTIONS
Energy gets used up or runs out.
Energy is destroyed in transformations from one type to another.
PROPER CONCEPTIONS
Energy is conserved. Energy is transformed from one form into
another but it cannot be recycled.
Energy can be recycled.
Something not moving can’t have any energy.
Force acting on an object does work even if the object does not move.
Energy is a force.
A cold body contains no heat.
Sweaters will heat you up.
At absolute zero motion of every part of an object stops.
Cold can flow.
Heat and cold flow like liquids.
Objects at rest have potential energy “stored energy”. Moving
objects have kinetic energy.
For work to happen an object must suffer a displacement due to the
action of a force that is applied to it.
Energy is the ability of an object to do work. Force is an action that
pushes or pulls an object.
A cold body contains less heat that the object against which it is
being compared.
Sweaters help in slowing down heat lost from your body by creating
an insulation layer between you and the cold air around you.
Temperature is a physical quantity that measures how fast the atoms
and molecules which make up the object move or oscillate. As an
object is cooled the oscillations of its atoms and/or molecules slow
down up to a point in which this oscillations are the slowest they can
possible be. The temperature which corresponds to this point is
called absolute zero.
Energy flows. Energy always flows from regions of high energy
(high temperature) to regions of low energy (low temperature).
Heat is transferred by molecular collisions. The transfer of heat
happens either by conduction, radiation, or convection.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Physical Science  Science with Toys Unit  Middle School
May 10, 2007  Page 6 of 10
Copyright 2007 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Teachers
Georgia Performance Standards Framework for Science
Heat and temperature are the same things.
Skin is a good thermometer.
Temperature is a measure of the internal energy of the system. Heat
is a form of energy.
A good thermometer is a substance that possesses a particular
physical characteristic that changes on a constant way when exposed
to a particular temperature. The skin does not possess this property.
EVIDENCE OF LEARNING:
Culminating Activity:
Have the students select one of these three options.
Option One:
Students will work with a partner to build a toy that can start from rest, accelerate in one direction, stop, and then start accelerating in the
opposite direction.
1. The student must write a research paper that should address the following:
i. Describe the design of their toy explaining how the concepts of force, inertia, acceleration, and friction are used.
ii. Data collected on the testing of the toy.
iii. A justification of why they think the model will work based on their research.
iv. A discussion of the effectiveness of their model compared with alternative ideas.
2. Design and build the toy.
3. Show the toy performing the task to the class.
Option Two:
Students will work with a partner to build a toy that contains at least three simple machines and is capable of completing a task with minimal or
no human intervention.
1. The student must write a research paper that should address the following:
i. A description of their machine explaining how it works.
ii. Mention how the simple machines work to reduce the effort necessary to complete the task.
iii. A discussion of the effectiveness of their model compared with alternative ideas.
2. Design and build the toy.
3. Show the toy performing the task to the class.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Physical Science  Science with Toys Unit  Middle School
May 10, 2007  Page 7 of 10
Copyright 2007 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Teachers
Georgia Performance Standards Framework for Science
Option Three:
Students will work with a partner to build a toy that contains a level and can convert potential into kinetic energy.
1. The student must write a research paper that should address the following:
i. A description of their toy explaining how it works.
ii. An explanation of how energy is being transformed.
iii. A discussion of how is energy conserved as the toy perform the task.
2. Design and build the toy.
3. Show the toy performing the task to the class.
Option Four:
Students will in small groups to design a model playground that contains at least five different activities.
1. The project must address the following:
i. A diagram of each station, identify any simple machines used in the station and how they are used.
ii. Explain how energy is transferred in each station.
iii. Draw an accurate graph of position vs. time and speed vs. time for each station with accompanying justification for such a
graph.
Suggested Tasks
Knowledge
1. Demonstrate the effect of unbalanced forces.
2. Demonstrate the effect of balanced and unbalanced forces.
Sample Activities
Water rockets. Students build a rocket propelled by water to
show relationships between force, velocity and acceleration.
(http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/waterRocket/index.htm)
Air rockets. Students build a rocket propelled by air to show
relationships between force, velocity and acceleration.
(http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/airRocket/index.html)
Equilibrium toys. Students construct a toy and identify all the
forces action on the toy that help to keep it balanced or make it
move.
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Physical Science  Science with Toys Unit  Middle School
May 10, 2007  Page 8 of 10
Copyright 2007 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Teachers
Georgia Performance Standards Framework for Science
(http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/tightrope/index.html)
(http://www-toys.science.unitn.it/toys/en-html/en-m-ernest.html)
(http://www-toys.science.unitn.it/toys/en-html/en-e-energia.html)
3. Demonstrate the effect of balanced and unbalanced forces on an
object in terms of gravity.
4. Explain the relationship between potential and kinetic energy.
5. Demonstrate the effect of simple machines (lever, inclined plane,
pulley, wedge, screw, and wheel and axle) on work.
6. Describe how heat can be transferred through matter by the
collisions of atoms (conduction) or through space (radiation). In a
liquid or gas, currents will facilitate the transfer of heat
(convection).
Gravitational funnel. Students build a funnel like the one
described on the link below and use different size marbles to
show the effect of gravitational forces on objects with different
masses.
(http://www-toys.science.unitn.it/toys/en-html/en-m-imbuto.html)
Bouncing Balls. Students determine how high different balls
bounce and relate this to transformation of kinetic to potential
energy.
Students use a ramp, a wooden block (or other type of object), a
dynamometer (or other type of spring balance) and a string to
study the effect of simple machines on the effort necessary to do
an activity.
Rube Goldberg activity
Groups of students write about different forms of energy
transformations that result in the release of heat.
- Coal to heat.
- Solar energy to heat.
- Chemical energy to heat.
- Sound energy to heat.
- Electric energy to heat.
UNIT RESOURCES
Water rockets.
http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/waterRocket/index.htm
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Physical Science  Science with Toys Unit  Middle School
May 10, 2007  Page 9 of 10
Copyright 2007 © All Rights Reserved
One Stop Shop For Teachers
Georgia Performance Standards Framework for Science
Air rockets
http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/airRocket/index.html
Equilibrium toys
http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/tightrope/index.html
http://www-toys.science.unitn.it/toys/en-html/en-m-ernest.html
http://www-toys.science.unitn.it/toys/en-html/en-e-energia.html
Gravitational funnel
http://www-toys.science.unitn.it/toys/en-html/en-m-imbuto.html
Georgia Department of Education
Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools
Physical Science  Science with Toys Unit  Middle School
May 10, 2007  Page 10 of 10
Copyright 2007 © All Rights Reserved