Design for Learning

Instructor: Ms. Sansom

Lesson Title: Force and Motion
Curriculum Area: Science

Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Date: April 13th
Estimated Time: 60 minutes

Standards Connection:
4.) Define force and motion
Describing the force of gravity
Learning Objective(s):
Students will correctly identify the terms force and motion when given an assessment.
Learning Objective(s) stated in kid-friendly language:
Students, today you will be learning about motion and force and how these scientific
principles affect the world around us.
Engagement:
The teacher will engage the students by activating their prior knowledge about
gravity and force (Activating Prior Knowledge) The teacher will support students
thinking by providing a video through the video Defining Gravity (Visual
Representation/MCREL). The teacher will have students reflect on the video and
extract the most important ideas.
Good morning students! I am SO proud of all the hard work you have been doing this
week with testing. You all are so smart and are doing an amazing job! (Positive
Reinforcement/MCREL) Today we are going to have some FUN with science. Just like
when we studied geography last week I expect each of you to be on your VERY best
behavior. That means that you are sitting up straight in your chair. You have your hands
folded nicely on your desk and this is very important you must participate and stay
throughout the lesson. Why is it so important to participate and be engaged while you are
learning? Any ideas? Yes Student A! Exactly, if you arent listening and you are
distracted then you arent going to learn and hear what I am teaching you. It is so
important that you listen and follow along so you can do the super fun activity that we
have coming (Establishing Expectations/Teach Like A Champion). Alright, give me a
thumbs up if that sounds good to everyone! (Using Cues) Lets get started! Today we are
going to be learning about gravity, force, and motion. We are going to learn how gravity,
force, and motion affects the world around us. Lets take a moment to brainstorm what
we think the term GRAVITY means. The teacher will practice wait time (Wait Time/Teach
Like A Champion). Does anyone have any ideas? Yes Student B? Correct! Gravity is the
natural pull on an object. Great job! Can anyone tell me what they think FORCE is?
Student C? Yes, the push or pull on an object! Very nice thinking friends! Can anyone
brainstorm what motion is? You can popcorn this one! Yes! It is when an object moves
because of a force that is applied. We are going to watch a very neat video about gravity,
force, and motion and then discuss further how we see these things affect the world
around us. Teacher plays the video. Can anyone give me some examples of how we see
gravity in the world around us. Give me an example. Teacher allows several students to
share their thinking. Yes, all of you have described seeing objects fall and being drawn to
the ground. You are exactly right. Now lets think what would the world be like
WITHOUT gravity!? (Higher level thinking question/MCREL). Teacher allows students
to brainstorm (Wait Time/Teach Like A Champion). Student D, would you share your
thinking with us? Yes! If all of the sudden gravity disappeared that would mean that
everything including us would be floating in the air. Does anyone know a place where

gravity does not exist? Yes! In space! We are going to watch a short clip to see what this
looks like! You all are going to love this! Teacher plays clip. Wow! I think that is so
amazing! Life would be very different if we did not have gravity on Earth. The next term
we are learning is force. Force is when motion is exerted on an object. Can anyone give
me an example of force? Yes! When you push on an object and it falls over. That is an
example of force. Today we are going to be learning about gravity and force and how we
see these two scientific principles affect the world around us. (Transition to teaching)
Learning Design:
I. Teaching:
The teacher will instruct students on the concept gravity, force, and motion by
explicitly teaching the key vocabulary terms to students. Students will have a guided
notes packet where they will record and follow along with the lesson (Notetaking/MCREL). The teacher will incorporate demonstrations and a See-ThinkWonder for gravity, force, and motion throughout the lesson. (Interactive Teaching)
Students, today we are going to be by focusing on learning about gravity, force, and
motion. Student A is passing out your guided notes to each of you and once you have
gotten your packet you may write your name at the top (Classroom Procedure/Teach Like
A Champion). Teacher waits for students to get their notes. Ok, on the first page you will
see our vocabulary connection. We have to first learn what the terms we are learning
mean before we can apply them to the world around us. Our first term is gravity. Gravity
is the natural pull on an object. Your job is to fill in the blanks with the correct words. I
have bolded the words on the board so you can see them very clearly. Teacher allows
students to write. Force is motion exerted on an object. Teacher allows students to write.
Lets unpack these terms a little deeper. Starting with gravity. Every object is being held
in place through gravity. Gravity is a special force on Earth that is pulling each and
every object toward it. Gravity is the force that causes things to drop to earth. It is also
the force that keeps planets in their orbits. Every physical object has a gravitational pull,
including you! Lets look at this little scenario of Gravity:
He walks past an apple tree that was full of shiny red apples. All of the sudden one of
the juicy apples fell to the ground.
The apple fell to the ground because of GRAVITY. The force of gravity drew the apple to
the ground.
You see this happened many many years ago to a man named Sir Issac Newton. The
video mentioned this man! He took an interest in why things fall down and not up. He
determined that objects must come down at some point.
Isaac Newton was a Scientist and Mathematician. He WONDERED why objects fell to
the ground. He studied this question and discovered what gravity is!
Have you ever wondered that before? Wondering is very important because it leads us to
learning new things! We are going to do a demonstration to help us visualize gravity.
Can anyone guess what happens when I drop the ping-pong ball? Yes! It drops to the
ground. The teacher drops a ping-pong ball. The ping-pong ball was an unsupported
object when I dropped it. Gravity pulled the object down to the ground. Lets think about
other times that we see gravity working. Teacher engages students in a guided See-ThinkWonder and records their thinking (Interactive Teaching). I love the way you all are
thinking! Now lets move on to thinking about force. Force is the push or pull acting
against an object.
When I push this ping-pong ball on the table what do you think will happen? The force
that I applied with my hand set the ball into motion and that motion and made it move.
We see force and motion all around us everyday. Brainstorm some examples of force and
motion. Teacher allows students to share out about their examples of force and motion in
everyday life. Those were perfect examples of how we see a push or pull force on objects

and how that sets that object into motion. Lets look at the example that I have provided!
Follow along with me on your guided notes. The teacher reads:
Bill was playing on a playground with his friend Tony. Bill and Tony were taking turns
on the swing set. Bill asked Tony to push him so he could swing high. Tony followed
Bills directions and gave Bill a great big push that sent him swinging into the air! How
do you see force and motion in this scenarios with Bill and Tony?
You see that Bill applied force to push Tony into motion that motion was to swing! Do
you think tony would have been set into much motion without Tony helping him? No! The
pushing force was what helped Tony go into motion! Any questions before we practice
our understanding of gravity, force, and motion? Ok great! Lets begin!
II. Opportunity for Practice:
The teacher will lead the practice by reading the scenarios out loud to the class and
then the students will determine the affect of gravity, force, and motion.
It is now your turn to practice! Everyone turn to the next page in your packet. We are
going to practice our understanding of gravity, force, and motion by doing some
investigating. Raise your hand if you know what the word investigate means? Yes,
Student B! It means to look for clues and to think very hard. We call this thinking
critically! We are going to investigate together. I am going to read these two passages out
loud and then we are going to try to use clues in the passage to answer the questions!
Teacher reads the first passage. The teacher holds up a handful of confetti. This is what
confetti is. It is cut up pieces of paper. Sometimes at birthdays and celebrations we throw
confetti. Now this is where you have to stop and think. What affect will gravity have on
this paper? Dont say it out loud. Tell me on your paper. Remember to tell me WHY you
think that. Support your answers! Teacher allows students to write. The teacher reads the
second passage. Lets think about what objects are used in this scenario. Luke has a bat
and he hits a baseball. Force was applied to the baseball but how? Write your thinking
down. Give me a thumbs up when you are finished writing. The next question asks how
the ball was set into motion. What motion was made? Teacher allows students to write.
Great thinking students. You have done a fantastic job learning how gravity, motion, and
force affect the world around us!
III. Assessment
The students knowledge will be tested with an exist pass to check for their
understanding of gravity, force, and motion (Formative Assessment).
IV. Closure:
The teacher will read the book Gravity by Jason Chin to close the lesson on gravity
and force.
Students I am so proud of all the hard work you each have done today! You each have
listened so well and worked wonderfully with your partners. Today we have learned
about gravity and force and how it affects the world around us. Someone share with me
what Earth would be like without any gravitational pull? Teacher allows students to share
their ideas. Exactly! Such good thinking! Gravity holds everything in place and force is
what makes an object move. Gravity and force are very very important for the function
life on Earth. To close out our lesson I am going to read the book Gravity by Jason Chin.
I want you to listen carefully and see how Gravity affects our world! Teacher reads the
books to conclude the lesson (Embedding Literature).

Materials and Resources:

Engagement
Defining Gravity: Crash Course Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljRlB6TuMOU
Gravity and Force demonstration
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMK36dpHIkg&nohtml5=False
Teaching
Power Point
Smart Board
Guided Notes
Ping-pong ball
Practice
Investigation Practice
Assessment
Exit Pass
Closure
Gravity by Jason Chin
Differentiation Strategies (including plans for individual learners):
Extension: The teacher will utilize choice boards in order to enrich gifted learners and
extend their learning. The choice boards will foster independence and initiative in
students.
Accommodations: The teacher will accommodate learners by frontloading vocabulary
terms. The teacher will allow students to learn the vocabulary terms with flashcards prior
to the lesson. The teacher will also offer supportive videos and texts that will reinforce
main concepts.
Reflection
Overall, I really enjoyed teaching this lesson to my 3rd grade students. They amazed me with their
level of critical thinking. I think the strength of this lesson was the use of visuals in the videos,
pictures, and demonstration. I think the weakness was that the lesson needed a stronger practice.
If I taught this lesson again I would incorporate an experiment with the students working in
cooperative learning groups.
Data
I taught this lesson to 18 students. 15 of the students scored in the green on the exit pass, and 3
scored in the yellow. I think it I were to have a more developed practice where the students were
working together, I think all of the students would have scored in the green.

Samford University

Design for Learning