3rd Grade Gravity LESSON PLAN - Cori Sterling's ...



GRAVITY

Name: Cori Sterling Date: 7/21/10 Grade Level: 3

|1. Purpose (State Core): |

|Standard 4: Students will understand that objects near Earth are pulled toward Earth by gravity. |

|Objective 1: Demonstrate that gravity is a force. |

|Objective 2: Describe the effects of gravity on the motion of an object. |

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|Vocabulary Focus: distance, force, gravity, weight, motion, speed, direction, simple machine |

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|Content goal: |

|Students will be able to understand that force is required to overcome gravity and that heavier objects require more force than lighter ones. |

|They will demonstrate and analyze the effect of gravity on several objects by dropping them off a chair and recording the time it takes for |

|the objects to hit the floor. This will be done in small groups. They will ask and answer questions about gravity by forming a hypothesis and |

|collecting data. |

|2. Essential Questions: |

|*How do the weight and size of an object affect the strength of the force of gravity on that object? |

|Will larger objects fall more quickly or more slowly than smaller objects? |

|Will heavier objects fall more quickly or more slowly than smaller objects? |

|Do you think there will be a difference? If so, why? Explain your hypothesis. |

|3. Activity: |

|Each partner will be given a paper with the essential questions, vocabulary, and a list of the materials needed. They will first formulate and|

|record a hypothesis of which objects will fall the quickest, listing them in order from the shortest time to the ground to the longest time to|

|the ground. They will then test their hypothesis by dropping the objects from a constant height (determined by a yard stick or measuring tape |

|on the wall) and recording the amount of time it takes for the object to hit the ground from the time it is dropped. Students are expected to |

|make a chart of their findings and present the chart to the class. |

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|Materials: |

|Measuring tapes, yard sticks, or lines drawn on the wall |

|Stop watch for each small group |

|Flat piece of paper, balled up piece of paper, tennis ball, penny, marble, marshmallow, and other random objects |

|Science notebook for recording |

|Large sheet of paper and markers for presenting |

|4. Student Engagement (5 min): |

|I will start off by asking the class what gravity is, and finding out what they already know about gravity. The same would be done for weight,|

|force, distance, speed, etc… to make sure students are aware of the terms used in the lesson. I will ask them the question and demonstrate how|

|they might assess the speed of a falling object. |

|Explore (35 min): Students will work together in their groups to answer the question, as well as any other questions they may have. They will|

|put together a visual demonstration of their findings. |

|Explain/ Summarize (15 min): Groups will present their posters to the class, and debrief. Attention will be paid to similarities and |

|differences, and students will discuss why the objects fall at different rates. |

|Extend/Apply (next lesson- approx. 45 min): The next lesson will cover Standard 3, and go more in depth on “force,” looking at what happens to|

|objects of the same weights or various weights colliding. Examples used will be, car crashes, clacker toys, and wind. We will look at how |

|force affects the movement of objects. |

|5. Assessment: Much of my assessment for this activity will be through observation. I will walk around to groups, seeing how they are working |

|together, if they are engaged, and if they need assistance. Another assessment piece will be the visuals at the end, because I can see what |

|steps they took to reach their conclusion, and whether or not they understand the concepts. Individuals will also be asked to write a paper on|

|gravity and force and how they are related at the end of the unit. |

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