Forces...explore with your class

The second part of this topic guide leads on from the tricky scientific concepts that we explained in part one (you can revise them here). Now you're clear on what the children need to know and have the background science under your belt, you're ready to apply these ideas for teaching forces to your class! 

As with other topics (e.g., electricity, light, sound), the invisible and abstract nature of forces can make it difficult for children to understand and cause misconceptions. So, as with other of the more abstract scientific concepts, learning is best achieved through hands-on, practical exploration which provides children with ways to experience and explain the effects of forces. 

1. It’s playtime!

When playing with toys, young children develop an understanding of how objects behave differently when you push, pull, throw, squeeze, bend and drop them. They begin exploring differences in the ways they move, the different materials they are made from and the ways they can be altered or manipulated. These early interactions are explorations in forces and provide the foundation for their understanding. So, engaging younger children in informal discussion and asking questions about what they are playing with and what they notice is really important. 

As they progress, children should begin to be able to group objects based on similarities and differences, including what they are made from, how they move on different surfaces and how they interact with each other.

2. Magnets

Magnets are great fun to play with, so allow the children to lead their own learning as much as possible. Provide your pupils with a selection of different magnets and materials (including what they can find themselves in the classroom) and let them explore. They can begin to classify objects and materials as magnetic and not magnetic and you can support them to consider what the magnetic materials have in common. They can also compare the strength of different magnets by designing an investigation to see how many paperclips can be lifted or from what distance they can be attracted. Magnets is a simple video to help demonstrate magnetic materials and Attracting objects is a fun Mystery Bag activity to develop the discussion further.

To provide some everyday context, lead a discussion about where they might find magnets and magnetic materials in everyday life (e.g., fridge doors, stereo speakers, bank cards, MRI scanning machines, car scrapyards) and where else they might be useful, or what would happen if we didn’t have magnets. There is scope here for some creative responses to magnetism – can they design something that needs a magnet to function? Pull together is a nice Odd One Out activity to get the conversation started and Clean up the beach is a fun Problem Solver to get the children thinking about practical applications for magnets.

To learn that magnets have two poles and how opposite poles attract and like poles repel, bar magnets are a clear and simple way of demonstrating this. Children can investigate which paired combinations of the bar magnets repel or attract each other, which could be represented in a labelled diagram. Why not develop their understanding by adding a magnetic bean to the P.E. warm-up game Runner Beans: the children run around (as runner beans) until you shout “chilli bean”, “baked bean”, “has-been”, or “magnetic bean” and they have to connect head (north pole) to toe (south pole) with a partner!

To provide a link to their learning about electricity, the What’s Going On? video Super spinning wire is a nice demonstration of how a magnet’s magnetic field can be used to create a simple motor. 

3. May the force(s) be with you

When learning about contact forces, older children need to be given the opportunity to explore, observe and explain the effects of different forces on objects. This is another excellent chance for them to lead their learning, asking their own questions about scientific phenomena and selecting the best way to find an answer. There are lots of investigations and Explorify activities to try, which provide a great opportunity for children to develop their scientific skills, including planning an enquiry, taking accurate measurements and identifying scientific evidence to support or refute arguments.

The effect of friction can be investigated by measuring the distance an object (e.g., a toy car) travels on different surfaces. Playing places, All ground up, What are the best shoes for running?  What is the best surface for running on?, Which rock would be best for a skate ramp?, Roll up, roll up and Tabletop hovercraft are useful activities for delving further into how the properties of materials affect the amount of friction created by a moving object. 

Gravity and air resistance can be investigated in a number of fun ways. 

• Your class could make parachutes or paper helicopters of different dimensions or materials and measure how long they take to fall to the ground from a fixed height. Try the Problem Solver Build an egg parachute to make it more interesting. This investigation is also fun using sycamore seeds, which provides a nice link to the children’s learning about plants. 

• You could also drop objects from the same height into a sand tray and look at the impact dent. The force of gravity acting on each object is the same, but the weight of each object is different – more weight from more mass resulting in a bigger dent in the sand. Blocks is an excellent What’s Going On? video to demonstrate this. 

• Challenge your children to try to keep a piece of paper on their upright palm without holding it there. This can only be done if you move forward so air pushes the paper on to your palm, which is a useful way of avoiding the idea that air resistance only acts in one direction.

• Air resistance and the concept of aerodynamics is also enjoyably investigated with a paper aeroplane competition! Paper planes is a Problem Solver to get you started. 

It is also really valuable for children to research the discoveries of Galileo and Newton. This not only provides some context but helps with children’s understanding of how scientific ideas change and develop over time. What goes up must come down and What if there was no gravity? are activities that will put the discussion of gravity and air resistance in a less familiar context.

Investigating water resistance obviously requires access to water and every school will have a water tray in the youngest year groups that can be used. Building boats or using different bath toys is a good way of observing the effects of water resistance and investigating what shapes are the most streamlined. Fun floating is an Odd One Out that can be used to relate this to the real world. Butterfly swimming, Backstroke swimming and are What’s Going On? videos that will also help promote discussion about what it is like when you swim through the water.

There are lots of other fun Explorify activities that provide interesting ways to learn about forces with your class, including a variety that are egg-related: How strong is an egg?, How do you protect an egg?, Standing on eggshells and Egg in bottle. Pole position, Fantastic gymnastics, Bounce and turn,  and Fancy footwork all show how different forces are involved in sports. Move large stones and Build a bridge are Problem Solvers that will enable your pupils to apply their knowledge. Moving propellors, Newspaper towers, Soft landing, The big squeeze, and Water trick are also great ways to get your children excited about forces.

4. Amazing machines

Children’s understanding of the mechanisms in simple machines will be helped by identifying where they are used in everyday life and handling examples where possible. The Odd One Out Cogs in the kitchen and Zoom in, Zoom Out Shiny teeth are activities that help identify how levers and gears are found in objects found around the kitchen. Whirring wonders, Easy peely and Take a whisk are great videos to demonstrate how simple machines use gears to make our lives easier.

Following a discussion about what life would be like without these simple machines and mechanisms, you could challenge your class to design and build a machine that makes use of one or more of the mechanisms. This is a great chance to work in a cross-curricular way, linking to DT. For example, they could design a machine for lifting classroom objects or have a competition to design a catapult that throws things the furthest. 

5. Use a concept cartoon 

A concept cartoon is a great way to engage your class and stimulate discussion of their ideas. You can use it at any time, but it is particularly useful for finding out what children know at the beginning of a topic or assessing their understanding near the end.  

(Taken from Science Concept Cartoons® Set 1 Revised Edition (2014) and Science Concept Cartoons® Set 2 (2015). © Millgate House Education Ltd www.millgatehouse.co.uk) 

This concept cartoon presents a range of viewpoints about the effect of forces on a moving object, including common misconceptions and the scientifically correct response. Get your pupils to consider what they think about the different opinions. It will help them to justify their own ideas and clarify their scientific thinking.  

The concept cartoon below shows how people can have different views on how a magnet works.

(Taken from Science Concept Cartoons® Set 1 Revised Edition (2014) and Science Concept Cartoons® Set 2 (2015). © Millgate House Education Ltd www.millgatehouse.co.uk) 

You can even design your own concept cartoons based on the needs of your children or to assess a particular piece of understanding. Or why not let your children have a go at creating their own?  

We'd love to know how these ideas worked for you. You can tell us on Twitter, join our Facebook Staffroom Group or send us an email! 

Image credit: Magnet attracting paperclips by Adriana adie images via Shutterstock SL