Physical Science: Vehicles in Motion

Sample Material

» Table of Contents (PDF)
» What's the Big Challenge (PDF)
» Learning Set 1 (PDF)

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The Big Challenge: Design and build a vehicle that will go straight, far, and fast, and carry a load. Students explore principles of motion and force, including relative motion, velocity, acceleration, Newton's laws, friction, gravity, balanced and unbalanced forces, and net force. They use these principles to improve their design of two cars, one with, and one without, a propulsion system.

 Implements STEM initiative
 Uses the Engineering Design Cycle

• action and reaction forces
• balanced and unbalanced forces
• calculating acceleration
• describing direction of motion
• describing motion
• force (magnitude and direction)
• force diagrams
• friction
• graphing force
• graphing motion

• inertia
• interpreting graphs of position vs. time and speed vs. time for motion in a single direction
• mass and acceleration
• measuring and calculating speed
• measuring force
• measuring motion
• nature of motion
• net force

• Newton's first law of motion
• Newton's second law of motion (force/mass/motion relationship)
• Newton's third law (force, pairs, action and reaction forces)
• predicting motion
• unbalanced forces and changes in velocity
• using scientific tools
• velocity

• asking questions
• careful observation
• criteria and constraints
• design trade-offs
• designing a fair test
• designing an experiment
• developing a procedure
• independent and dependent variables

• interpreting data
• keeping good records
• making measurements
• making recommendations
• optimization
• using evidence
• using evidence to support claims
• using science knowledge
• using scientific tools

21ST CENTURY SKILLS
Collaboration
Communicating plans and ideas Developing explanations
Finding trends in data
Critical thinking including:

• building on the work of others
• collecting, organizing, and analyzing data
• observations and interpretation using science knowledge
• using evidence to support claims