Planning My Science Lesson

I've decided to focus on force and motion in the 3rd grade science core.

Standard 3
Students will understand the relationship between the force applied to an object and resulting motion of the object.

Objective 2
Demonstrate that the greater the force applied to an object, the greater the change in speed or direction of the object.

d. Conduct a simple investigation to show what happens when objects of various weights collide with one another (e.g., marbles, balls).

I will be using the technology the University of Oregon Department of Physics Virtual Lab.
Specifically I will be having them conduct various experiments in simple collisions with cannon balls and box cars, playing with momentum, mass, and velocity to change the result of the collision. I will direct them in the first amounts they should enter into the experiment (to guide them to discover certain physical laws) and then they will be free to continue playing with it as desired and continue to note observations. Their results should be charted using the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives.

TPACK:
1. The technology I will be using allows students to simulate virtual collisions. Using technology is an easy way to adjust the experiment (change mass, force, etc.) to see how that affects the result. It is a quick and interactive way to illustrate physics principles. It also is more enjoyable than other methods of teaching this material. Then the children graph their data using technology in order to visualize their results and see relationships.
2. I will teach this lesson using guided discovery learning, which is one of the best ways to teach math and science. The students will discover principles on their own, but I will make sure they discover them correctly (and not make incorrect assumptions) by giving guidance.
3. The content of this lesson has to do with comparing the effect of mass and other factors in collisions between two objects. They are discovering the principles and laws of motion. In the process they see higher