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Acting forces

Science Year 3
This unit is part of Year 3 Science Amazing Magnets

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Objectives

Recap by thinking about the different forces involved in various sports. Discover that gravity is a force that doesn’t need contact – but is it the only one? No: magnetism can also pull objects from a distance. Experiment with magnetism, ask questions and design fair tests to answer them.

Science Objectives
i) Notice that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance.

Working Scientifically

  1. Ask relevant questions and use different types of scientific enquiries to answer them.
  2. Set up simple practical enquiries and comparative and fair tests.
  3. Use results to draw simple conclusions, make predictions for new values, suggest improvements and raise further questions.

Other Curriculum Areas
Maths - Statistics

  • Interpret and present data using bar charts, pictograms and tables.

You Will Need

Provided Resources

  • Printouts of the Sporty Forces Team and Teacher’s Score sheets
  • Sporty Forces PowerPoint
  • How to play Sporty Forces
  • Teaching PowerPoint
  • A3 copies of the task sheet – 1 per group of 3 children
  • A4 copies of results tables

Additional Resources

  • A big box of paperclips
  • A small piece of stiff card per child (12 x 8 cm approx.)
  • Different types of magnets (e.g. horseshoe, bar, disk, wand)
  • A4 sheets of coloured paper or card
  • Marker pen
  • Some metal bearings
  • Clear storage boxes that can be filled with water

Lesson Planning

Teaching

  • Ask questions and answer them by planning and carrying out a fair test.
  • Explore forces and discover that gravity and magnetism can act without contact.

Activities

  1. Play a game in teams to explore and show the different ways forces can act in different sports.
  2. Actively investigate how some forces can act without contact (gravity and magnetism).
  3. Explore magnetism, ask questions and attempt to answer them by planning and carrying out a fair test.
  4. Tabulate results and use them to draw conclusions and raise further questions.

Investigation - exploring/classifying and identifying
Investigate how it is forces that make things move (pushes and pulls) and that magnetic forces can move things at a distance without forces touching.

Vocabulary
Forces, pushes, pulls, gravity, contact, magnet, magnetism, fair test, results, table

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