Force+and+Motion

=Force and Motion= toc

Essential Question
Mousetrap Cars

Content Knowledge

 * ~ GA: Science (GPS) GA: Grade 8 Habits of the Mind ||
 * S8CS1. Students will explore the importance of curiosity, honesty, openness, and skepticism in science and will exhibit these traits in their own efforts to understand how the world works. ||
 * a. Understand the importance of-and keep-honest, clear, and accurate records in science. ||  ||
 * b. Understand that hypotheses can be valuable even if they turn out not to be completely accurate. ||  ||
 * S8CS2. Students will use standard safety practices for all classroom laboratory and field investigations. ||
 * a. Follow correct procedures for use of scientific apparatus. ||  ||
 * b. Demonstrate appropriate techniques in all laboratory situations. ||  ||
 * c. Follow correct protocol for identifying and reporting safety problems and violations. ||  ||
 * S8CS3. Students will have the computation and estimation skills necessary for analyzing data and following scientific explanations. ||
 * a. Analyze scientific data by using, interpreting, and comparing numbers in several equivalent forms, such as integers, fractions, decimals, and percents. ||  ||
 * b. Find the mean, median, and mode and use them to analyze a set of scientific data. ||  ||
 * c. Apply the metric system to scientific investigations that include metric to metric conversions (i.e., centimeters to meters). ||  ||
 * d. Decide what degree of precision is adequate, and round off appropriately. ||  ||
 * e. Address the relationship between accuracy and precision. ||  ||
 * f. Use ratios and proportions, including constant rates, in appropriate problems. ||  ||
 * S8CS4. Students will use tools and instruments for observing, measuring, and manipulating equipment and materials in scientific activities utilizing safe laboratory procedures. ||
 * a. Use appropriate technology to store and retrieve scientific information in topical, alphabetical, numerical, and keyword files, and create simple files. ||  ||
 * b. Use appropriate tools and units for measuring objects and/or substances. ||  ||
 * c. Learn and use standard safety practices when conducting scientific investigations. ||  ||
 * S8CS5. Students will use the ideas of system, model, change, and scale in exploring scientific and technological matters. ||
 * a. Observe and explain how parts can be related to other parts in a system such as the role of simple machines in complex machines. ||  ||
 * b. Understand that different models (such as physical replicas, pictures, and analogies) can be used to represent the same thing. ||  ||
 * S8CS6. Students will communicate scientific ideas and activities clearly. ||
 * a. Write clear, step-by-step instructions for conducting scientific investigations, operating a piece of equipment, or following a procedure. ||  ||
 * b. Write for scientific purposes incorporating information from a circle, bar, or line graph, data tables, diagrams, and symbols. ||  ||
 * c. Organize scientific information in appropriate tables, charts, and graphs, and identify relationships they reveal. ||  ||
 * S8CS7. Students will question scientific claims and arguments effectively. ||
 * a. Question claims based on vague attributions (such as "Leading doctors say...") or on statements made by people outside the area of their particular expertise. ||  ||
 * b. Identify the flaws of reasoning in arguments that are based on poorly designed research (e.g., facts intermingled with opinion, conclusions based on insufficient evidence). ||  ||
 * c. Question the value of arguments based on small samples of data, biased samples, or samples for which there was no control. ||  ||
 * d. Recognize that there may be more than one way to interpret a given set of findings. ||  ||
 * ~ GA: Science (GPS) GA: Grade 8 Nature of Science ||
 * S8CS8. Students will be familiar with the characteristics of scientific knowledge and how it is achieved. ||
 * a. When similar investigations give different results, the scientific challenge is to judge whether the differences are trivial or significant, which often requires further study. Even with similar results, scientists may wait until an investigation has been repeated many times before accepting the results as meaningful. ||  ||
 * b. When new experimental results are inconsistent with an existing, well-established theory, scientists may pursue further experimentation to determine whether the results are flawed or the theory requires modification. ||  ||
 * c. As prevailing theories are challenged by new information, scientific knowledge may change. ||  ||
 * S8CS9. Students will understand the features of the process of scientific inquiry. ||
 * a. Investigations are conducted for different reasons, which include exploring new phenomena, confirming previous results, testing how well a theory predicts, and comparing different theories. Scientific investigations usually involve collecting evidence, reasoning, devising hypotheses, and formulating explanations to make sense of collected evidence. ||  ||
 * b. Scientific investigations usually involve collecting evidence, reasoning, devising hypotheses, and formulating explanations to make sense of collected evidence. ||  ||
 * c. Scientific experiments investigate the effect of one variable on another. All other variables are kept constant. ||  ||
 * d. Scientists often collaborate to design research. To prevent this bias, scientists conduct independent studies of the same questions. ||  ||
 * e. Accurate record keeping, data sharing, and replication of results are essential for maintaining an investigator's credibility with other scientists and society. ||  ||
 * f. Scientists use technology and mathematics to enhance the process of scientific inquiry. ||  ||
 * g. The ethics of science require that special care must be taken and used for human subjects and animals in scientific research. Scientists must adhere to the appropriate rules and guidelines when conducting research. ||  ||
 * ~ GA: Science (GPS) GA: Grade 8 Physical Science ||
 * S8P2. Students will be familiar with the forms and transformations of energy. ||
 * a. Explain energy transformation in terms of the Law of Conservation of Energy. ||  ||
 * b. Explain the relationship between potential and kinetic energy. ||  ||
 * c. Compare and contrast the different forms of energy (heat, light, electricity, mechanical motion, sound) and their characteristics. ||  ||
 * S8P3. Students will investigate relationship between force, mass, and the motion of objects. ||
 * a. Determine the relationship between velocity and acceleration. ||  ||
 * b. Demonstrate the effect of balanced and unbalanced forces on an object in terms of gravity, inertia, and friction. ||  ||
 * c. Demonstrate the effect of simple machines (lever, inclined plane, pulley, wedge, screw, and wheel and axle) on work ||

Vocabulary
Force Motion Acceleration Velocity Potential and Kinetic Energy Newton's Laws Friction Balanced and Unbalanced forces

Background knowledge