Carly Zenk 3rd grade
Assignment 3: Pre-Assessment Part A. Common misconceptions about force and motion: University of Leicester School of Education website: http://www.le.ac.uk/se/centres/sci/selfstudy/fam5.htm An object stops moving because “the push wore off.” An object that moves has that ability to do so by itself (in-built ability to move). “People move because they have legs” or “Bikes move because they have wheels.”- a part of an object creates the motion. Things fall because you let them go, but to go UP you have to push them up. An object stops because of the lack of action to keep the object going. The National Science Digital Library website http://nsdl.org/resource/2200/20061003155721785T The only "natural" motion is for an object to be at rest. If an object is at rest, no forces are acting on the object. Only animate objects can exert a force. Thus, if an object is at rest on a table, no forces are acting upon it. Force is a property of an object. An object has force and when it runs out of force it stops moving. The motion of an object is always in the direction of the net force applied to the object. Large objects exert a greater force than small objects. Friction always hinders motion. Thus, you always want to eliminate friction. A force is needed to keep an object moving with a constant speed. Part B. Pre-assessment task The pre-assessment task was focused on the Big Idea of the entire unit: force and motion. The students were given a concept map (bubble map) to fill out and given a question as a prompt for their ideas. The question the students had to brainstorm about was: “How do things start and stop moving?” This pre-assessment prompt was open enough for students to give their own examples, and not to direct their thinking in any particular way. Students were completely free to write anything that came to their minds, which then allowed me to pre-assess ANY ideas they have prior to formal instruction about force and motion. During the time students were completing the concept map, I went around the room and questioned 5 students about their thoughts on this question about movement. I questioned students that all have their different leaning styles and
Carly Zenk 3rd grade
abilities. The questions I asked these 5 students in this interview format included: “Can you give me an example?” “What do you mean when you say …..? and “have you ever experienced that movement in your life?” By interviewing these 5 different students, I was able to see deeper into student thinking by discussing their personal experiences with force and motion. During the brainstorm, I also introduced a specific scenario for students to think about if they are struggling with brainstorming. The scenario was as follows: “If there was a ball sitting still on the floor in the front of this room, HOW would it begin moving? HOW would it stop moving?” This scenario sparked student thinking for those students who were unsure of what was expected of this concept map. Part C. Summary and Analysis of pre-assessment The students’ current understandings of the unit goal were very similar throughout the class, as shown by the pre-assessment concept maps. The goal of the unit is for students to be able to explain how forces (pushes and pulls) are needed to speed up, slow down, stop, or change direction of a moving object, as well as being able to compare motions of objects. Overall, students will learn about WHY and HOW objects move and change movement. Prior to formal instruction, the majority of students recognize the concept of pushing an object to start a movement. Many reallife examples were given including pushing a peddle to move a bike, pushing a button to make a car drive, and wind pushing a piece of paper. Students understand that something else has to move that object and that object cannot start moving on its own. Verbs such as rolling, kicking, blowing, and bouncing were all used to describe how an object starts moving. As for stopping the movement, students used phrases to prove that they understood that something has to stop that movement. Phrases such as hit something, catch it, grabbing it, stopping it with your hand, picking it up, and putting something in front of it were all written in the concept maps to describe HOW to stop a moving object. These phrases all reference to the idea that the object has to be stopped by something else touching the moving object (force). It seems as if students recognize force and motion with the examples they had given, but do not have the scientific concepts or vocabulary yet. What I learned about how my students are thinking about this goal that I can utilize in my lessons is that providing many real-life examples is a positive way to begin the unit and lessons because students are already naturally thinking about the experiences they have with motion. I can use the fact that my students are thinking about the relationship between the push from an object to start and stop a motion. For example, in my lessons I can given students objects and am able to allow them to investigate motion without much formal instruction in the beginning because I know they are thinking that a push (in many forms) is needed to create that motion. These students have enough background knowledge to be able to inquire on their own, and come up with new findings through those hands-on experiences. Also, I learned that some students are thinking beyond the obvious when it comes to motion. For example, one
Carly Zenk 3rd grade
student wrote, “you can stop a bike by not riding it” and another student wrote, “the board just stops.” These phrases lead me to the idea that some more formal instruction is needed to discuss if there is any motion when an object is still, which can lead into my gravity and friction concepts. My students have a wide range of experiences with force/motion that I can utilize in my lessons. My students recognize motion while looking around the room including when a paper falls off of a desk (moves/gravity), when objects are dropped (gravity), when a ball is thrown in sports, when driving in a car watching the pedals being pushed, when riding a bicycle, and when pushing objects in the classroom on an everyday basis (re-arranging desks, chair, etc.). There is movement and forces all around these students on an everyday basis, including examples easily accessible in the classroom, as well as experience they have at home and during recreational activities. Force and motion allows for real-life experiences to lead the way to the concepts easily. What I want my students to be able to do at the end of the unit that they cannot do now is use scientific vocabulary to explain their thoughts, explain WHY objects start/stop moving, identify how forces also change direction of movements, and be able to demonstrate real-life examples WHILE explaining the forces being conducted on an object. Right now, after analyzing the pre-assessment and having those interviews, my students are understanding the basics and giving basic real-life examples. At the end of the unit, I want my students to be able to describe the force of gravity and friction on an object, as well as the obvious push/pull forces. What I learned about my students’ thinking about how they make sense of the world is that they learn from pure observation. They didn’t seem to ask anyone WHAT makes an object move, but instead had observed the world around them and began putting the pieces together that a push (and pull) is needed to start movement. For example, one student recognized that a car pedal is pushed to start and stop a car’s movement. This shows me that students are constantly observing their world outside of the school environment and that they are naturally curious about these scientific concepts they see everyday. This unit can be tied into real life for students to be able to make sense of the movements they see around them constantly. They will be able to look at someone throwing a ball and know that a force (push) made that ball start moving, that gravity begins to pull that ball back down, and that the person catching the ball is stopping the movement with another force (push). Students will be able to explain why some cars move faster than others when one road is made of gravel and the other road is smoothly paved (friction). Many authentic examples can be provided by the teacher, but most examples can be provided by student observations.
