5E Lesson Plan Template

Teacher Name: Sienna Whaley

Date Created: 1/23/2021

Subject Area: Science- Forces and Interactions: Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Standard(s):
3-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and
unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
 Science and Engineering Practices:
o Planning and Carrying out Investigations
 Cross-cutting Concepts:
o Cause and effect

Materials:

Teacher:
 Toy cars for every two students (26 students so 13 cars)
 Push and pull videos.
 Variety of unbalanced and balanced forces scenarios on slides
 Handouts with the same scenarios from the slides above (13-one for each pair)
 Craft supplies if students need them.
 White board and markers

Students:
 Science Journals
 Pencil

Technology:
 SMART Board
 Teacher computer

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Lesson Objective(s) / Learner Outcome(s):
 Students will be able to explain the difference between balanced and unbalanced
forces.
 Students will be able to conduct investigations with a partner to explain unbalanced
and balanced forces.
 Students will be able to predict to effect of balanced or unbalanced forces on an
object.

Differentiation Strategies to Meet Diverse Learner Needs:

 Accommodation for non-white, middle class culture – Students may have had been
traumatized by dogs when they were younger. Make sure students are fine with dogs
before showing the “puppy tug of war video”.
 Accommodation for Visually different – Allow students to sit closer to the board so
they can see better.
 Accommodation for Hearing different – Audio is not necessary for the videos but
allow students to sit closer to the speakers to hear what is going on. Use speaker
system for speaking.
 Accommodation for Emotionally different – Accommodations the same as the first
point
 Accommodation for Physically different – Have larger cars. Assist when needed.
 Accommodation for Intellectually different – low – Partner them with someone who
understands the activity. Assist when needed.
 Accommodation for Intellectually different – gifted – Allow for students to test
unbalanced and balanced situations not done in the class.

ENGAGE
 I will begin class by playing the four push and pull forces videos listed in the
bibliography below.
 When a video plays through I will ask students the following
o What sort of forces were being shown?
o Have you played tug-of-war before?
o Have you seen ______ before?
o What was it like playing tug-of-war?
o Why do you think the deer/puppies/lion/children are not moving
forward/back when the push/pull against each other?
o When they do move why do you think so?
o How is the turtle able to push the ball easily?
 These questions are asked to get the students thinking about balanced and
unbalanced forces through fun/cool/cute videos.

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Transition “Now we are going to take some cars and perform some fun scenarios like the
ones we have seen in the videos.”

EXPLORE
 With a partner, students will put their car through a series of situations that
involve unbalanced and balanced forces. They will write/draw (record if needed)
what they discover about forces by doing these scenarios.
o Example scenario: “You are two monsters rampaging through a town.
There is a car you want to push out of the way. One monster pushed on
one side of the car while the other pushes on the other side. Will the car
move? Are both monsters pushing with the same force? If they are what
happens? If not, what happens?” (This is a rough example. Better wording
would be done in a real lesson)
o A picture will be available with the scenarios to help explain the situation.
 Once students go through all situations and have recorded their thoughts, they
may continue to explore with different situation that they come up with
 Below is an example picture (I attempted to draw in MS paint with my computer
mouse so not the greatest quality. In a real lesson I would have drawn it by hand
since I am way better at drawing that way)

Transition “Now that everyone has finished, let us return to our seats with our partner so
we can discuss what we learned.”

EXPLAIN
 Students and their partners will share what they have for each scenario.

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 o Each scenario’s picture and description will be displayed on the SMART
board as we discuss them.
 For each situation I will write on the board things that students have noticed
 When everyone has shared for each scenario, we will discuss what we have.
o What do you notice about the different situations?
o In the scenarios where the forces are the same what happened?
o What happened when the forces were different?
 After some discussions, I will explain what unbalanced and balanced forces are and
how they relate to the scenarios that they did and the videos that they see.

Transition

“Now that you know what balanced and unbalanced forces are and how they relate to an
object’s motion, I want you and your partner to create some scenarios on your own for
other pair to solve”?

ELABORATE
 Students will create three scenarios that demonstrate unbalanced or balanced force
scenarios.
 When they are done and had their scenarios checked with me the teacher, they will
trade their scenarios with another group who has finished their scenarios too.

Transition
 “Once you have completed your scenario, you and your partner will create a
representation of what you learned today.”

EVALUATE

 Summative Assessment- Students will create a representation of what they have

learned today about unbalanced and balanced forces and how they affect an object’s
movement.

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 o They can do it with their partner.
o They can do it in any way as long as I approve of it.
 Formative Assessment- Discussion and questions

Bibliography:

Pull Forces videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e91FdBYdsP0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdH8iwyGInc
Push Force video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=057__7XtHBM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFtpu3gXREc

ADDITIONAL TEACHER NOTES/REVISIONS: