STEM throughout the year- Unit 7 Force and Motion

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. (This acronym can also be spelled “STEAM” in which the “A” stands for art.)

This packet is full of fun, hands-on, innovative STEM activities that your preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students are sure to love.

Why STEM?
As educators we are tasked with preparing the next generation for jobs that may not even be created yet. Students need to be able to work collaboratively with their peers and be able to problem solve. STEM offers students the opportunity to work on these skills.

STEM provides students with open-ended activities where they can go through the process of defining a problem, brainstorming a possible solution, planning, creating, and improving on their plan. This process helps prepare our students for their futures in fun and innovative ways.

How Does This Packet Work?
This packet is part seven of a ten part series. Each unit is meant to span over the course of an entire month. Therefore, students can revisit the activities and improve upon their thoughts/plan. (These activities can also stand alone.)

This packet is geared to help students think as engineers, and physicists. Through a series of challenges, students will explore the relationships between force and motion with distance and speed.

Activities:
1. Students will explore how the angle of a ramp affects the speed and distance of a ball. As part of their inquiry, students will record the distance their ball travels and the time it took the ball to travel down the ramp.

2. Students will work together to determine the answer to the essential question, “Does the length of the ramp affect distance and speed?”

3. Exploring forces and motions on the playground: How does weight impact speed and distance? Students will test the time it takes a variety of materials to go down the inclined plane. (slide)

4. In small groups students will design a ramp.
The toy manufacturing company needs your help. They need you to design a ramp that will get their toys from the workshop down to the shipping area quickly. Help them create a ramp that meets their needs.

Our amusement park needs your help to make the slide ride even more fun. Sliders have complained they are not going far enough after they get down the incline. Your job is help amusement park enthusiasts slide a very far distance. Good luck!

In this packet you will find fully written out lesson plans, posters, activities, recording pages, and extensions to use during an entire month. These activities are perfect for fun Friday experiments, STEM labs, and science and art extensions.

Please look at the preview to get a better understanding of how this pack is set up and what is included. Your students will LOVE these lessons and activities.