Projectile Investigation Lesson Plan: Projectile Motion

Submitted by: Developed by Jefferson County Middle School Workshop

Grade Levels: 6-8, 9-12

In this middle school lesson plan, students use an interactive simulation called Projectile Motion to design and conduct their own experiment.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Grade: 03

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1

Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1

Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3

Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.9

Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

Grade: 06, 07, 08

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.1

Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts.

Grade: 06, 07, 08

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.3

Follow precisely a multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks.

Grade: 06, 07, 08

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.7

Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).

Grade: 03

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.7

Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.

Grade: 03

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.8

Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.2

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.7

Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

Grade: 04

CCSS.Math.Content.4.G.A.1

Draw points, lines, line segments, rays, angles (right, acute, obtuse), and perpendicular and parallel lines. Identify these in two-dimensional figures.

Grade: 06

CCSS.Math.Content.6.RP.A.2

Understand the concept of a unit rate a/b associated with a ratio a:b with b ≠ 0, and use rate language in the context of a ratio relationship. For example, “This recipe has a ratio of 3 cups of flour to 4 cups of sugar, so there is 3/4 cup of flour for each cup of sugar.” “We paid $75 for 15 hamburgers, which is a rate of $5 per hamburger.”1

Grade: 07

CCSS.Math.Content.7.RP.A.2

Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities.

Grade: K, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12

CCSS.Math.Practice.MP2

Mathematically proficient students make sense of quantities and their relationships in problem situations. They bring two complementary abilities to bear on problems involving quantitative relationships: the ability to decontextualize—to abstract a given situation and represent it symbolically and manipulate the representing symbols as if they have a life of their own, without necessarily attending to their referents—and the ability to contextualize, to pause as needed during the manipulation process in order to probe into the referents for the symbols involved. Quantitative reasoning entails habits of creating a coherent representation of the problem at hand; considering the units involved; attending to the meaning of quantities, not just how to compute them; and knowing and flexibly using different properties of operations and objects.

Grade: K, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12

CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4

Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace. In early grades, this might be as simple as writing an addition equation to describe a situation. In middle grades, a student might apply proportional reasoning to plan a school event or analyze a problem in the community. By high school, a student might use geometry to solve a design problem or use a function to describe how one quantity of interest depends on another. Mathematically proficient students who can apply what they know are comfortable making assumptions and approximations to simplify a complicated situation, realizing that these may need revision later. They are able to identify important quantities in a practical situation and map their relationships using such tools as diagrams, two-way tables, graphs, flowcharts and formulas. They can analyze those relationships mathematically to draw conclusions. They routinely interpret their mathematical results in the context of the situation and reflect on whether the results make sense, possibly improving the model if it has not served its purpose.

Lesson Plan Next Generation Science Standards Alignments

3-5-ETS1-2

Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

3-PS2-1

Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.

4-PS3-1

Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.

4-PS3-3

Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.

HS-PS2-1

Analyze data to support the claim that Newton's second law of motion describes the mathematical relationship among the net force on a macroscopic object, its mass, and its acceleration.

HS-PS2-3

Apply scientific and engineering ideas to design, evaluate, and refine a device that minimizes the force on a macroscopic object during a collision.

MS-PS2-2

Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object's motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.

MS-PS3-1

Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.

MS-PS3-2

Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.

Students will:

Explore the physics of projectiles
Review the process skills of designing and conducting an experiment

Materials:

Computers or other devices with internet access

Vocabulary:

acceleration, air resistance, force, mass, projective, trajectory, velocity

Preparation:

This lesson plan features an interactive simulation titled Projectile Motion, developed by our award-winning partner PhET through the University of Colorado Boulder. The simulation invites students to investigate the the factors that affect a projectile’s trajectory, such as angle, height, initial speed, and air resistance.

Review the Projectile Motion Simulation Overview to learn about the sim controls, model simplifications, and insights into student thinking.

Preview and play with the Projectile Motion sim to plan how you will adapt it to your students’ needs.

Build background knowledge or reinforce topics with these BrainPOP movies: Acceleration; Distance, Rate, and Time; Newton’s Law of Motion; Forces; and Conservation of Mass

Lesson Procedure:

Play one or more of the BrainPOP movies suggested in the Preparation section for background.
Engage students in a discussion about projectiles. For a warm up activity, have students wad a piece of paper and try throwing it into the garbage can. Then have students try throwing different types of objects into the ‘basket’ such as a sheet of paper, a tennis ball, a golf ball, a feather, a beach ball, a cotton ball, etc.
Ask them to make observations/comparisons about the tossed objects (e.g., Why did some make it into the basket and some did not? Did all papers follow the same path?)
Now have students write their best understanding of the word “projectile” and discuss as a class. Then invite them to reflect on the warm-up activity: What factors do you think affect projectile movement?
Working with a partner, have students select one of the factors that affect projectile movement and together propose a question. Then have them write a hypothesis using an if… then… because… statement.
Instruct students to open the Projectile Motion sim and click the green RUN NOW button. Have them familiarize themselves with the controls and features and determine how they will test their question.
Now have them design a table and collect data, and show the relationship of their data in a graph.
Ask students to describe why using the simulation is a good method for studying projectiles. And, have them identify the error sources the simulation eliminates or minimizes.
Finally, partners work together to write a concluding paragraph that restates their question, discusses their results in relation to their hypothesis, and asks questions about their investigation

Filed as: 3-5-ETS1-2, 3-PS2-1, 4-PS3-1, 4-PS3-3, 6-8, 9-12, BrainPOP, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3