Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Physics: Force & Motion + Gravity + Isaac Newton (Block 1)

Our school days ran overly long last week (our first week of third grade). It's apparent that I'm going to have to drastically restructure our history plans and go back to a rotating block schedule for it and science. I can't figure any other way to work it. That means history will have to take a back seat to science for a while.

This is the fourth and final year of our first time around the history-science cycle we follow. I talked about the four-year cycle method way back when we started Ancient History. Here's a refresher as to the ordering.

Ancient History < > Life Science (First, Fifth, Ninth Grades)
Middle Ages < > Earth Science & Astronomy (Second, Sixth, Tenth Grades)
Early Modern < > Chemistry (Third, Seventh, Eleventh Grades)
Modern & Today < > Physics (Fourth, Eight, Twelfth Grades)

We're a year ahead, so that means Modern History and Physics are up for us this year. Luckily, physical science is common in the early grades, so materials were a good bit easier to come by than when we studied chemistry last year. However, creative, quality output options I found lacking.

We will primarily be using BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr., Bill Nye the Science Guy DVDs, various science themed books by Nomad Press, and a couple of supplements from Teachers Pay Teachers in our study of physics this year.

Brain POP
 Explore Gravity!: With 25 Great Projects


Force & Motion - Day 1

Force & Motion - Day 2



Gravity - Day 1

Gravity pulls everything down toward the center of the earth. Tessa proved which way is straight down by creating plumb bobs with pencils, yarn and various objects around the school room. Her favorite bob had a plastic frog tied to it.
Gravity pulls everything down toward the center of the earth. Tessa proved which way is straight down by creating plumb bobs with pencils, yarn and various objects around the school room. Her favorite bob had a plastic frog tied to it.

Gravity - Day 2

Gravity - Day 3

Tessa and I created and tested a water level that we made out of clear plastic tubing, a funnel and colored water. Tessa learned that when water is in a confined space, gravity makes sure the top of it is level. Pretty cool!
Tessa and I created and tested a water level that we made out of clear plastic tubing, a funnel and colored water. Tessa learned that when water is in a confined space, gravity makes sure the top of it is level. Pretty cool!

Gravity - Day 4

Tessa fashioned a mobile from straws, paperclips and pictures drawn on card stock to better understand the relationship between gravity and balance. The theme for her mobile was our recent trip to Florida. It features pictures of the beach, a view of our condo at night from the pool, a pizza (doughnut on the opposite side), and a triple-scoop ice cream cone.
Tessa fashioned a mobile from straws, paperclips and pictures drawn on card stock to better understand the relationship between gravity and balance. The theme for her mobile was our recent trip to Florida. It features pictures of the beach, a view of our condo at night from the pool, a pizza (doughnut on the opposite side), and a triple-scoop ice cream cone.

Gravity - Day 5

Gravity - Day 6

Tessa swung a ball in a cup to see centripetal force in action. No matter how she swung it, the ball never fell out.
Tessa swung a ball in a cup to see centripetal force in action. No matter how she swung it, the ball never fell out.

Tessa created a mock Earth orbit with a drawing of the Earth taped into the bottom of a plastic bowl and a marble "moon" (the "moon" is the green blur on the right-hand side). She moved the bowl in a circular motion to experiment with centripetal and centrifugal force.
Tessa created a mock Earth orbit with a drawing of the Earth taped into the bottom of a plastic bowl and a marble "moon" (the "moon" is the green blur on the right-hand side). She moved the bowl in a circular motion to experiment with centripetal and centrifugal force.

Gravity - Day 7

Gravity - Day 8

Gravity - Day 9

Tessa played "Set the Bottle" to see how some carnival games use gravity to make it harder to win. I filled three bottles half full of water and then placed them in the freezer the day before so that one bottle froze upside down, one on its side and the third upright.
Tessa played "Set the Bottle" to see how some carnival games use gravity to make it harder to win. I filled three bottles half full of water and then placed them in the freezer the day before so that one bottle froze upside down, one on its side and the third upright.

Isaac Newton - Day 10
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousOctober 11, 2015 at 2:18 PM

    For the first time in several months, I have the opportunity to surf the web. I was so pleased to find your site and that you found my Explore Gravity book useful! It looks like a very active class - which is just the way I like it best! Keep it up!
    Cindy Blobaum

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