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  • Middle School

    Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations

  1. 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-PS2-2

    Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

A Peformance Expectation (PE) is what a student should be able to do to show mastery of a concept. Some PEs include a Clarification Statement and/or an Assessment Boundary. These can be found by clicking the PE for "More Info." By hovering over a PE, its corresponding pieces from the Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts will be highlighted.

Science and Engineering Practices

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

Planning and carrying out investigations to answer questions or test solutions to problems in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to include investigations that use multiple variables and provide evidence to support explanations or design solutions.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Crosscutting Concepts

By clicking on a specific Science and Engineering Practice, Disciplinary Core Idea, or Crosscutting Concept, you can find out more information on it. By hovering over one you can find its corresponding elements in the PEs.

Planning Curriculum

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy

  • RST.6-8.3 - Follow precisely a multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks. (MS-PS2-2)
  • WHST.6-8.1 - Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts. (MS-PS2-2)

Mathematics

  • 6.EE.A.2 - Write, read, and evaluate expressions in which letters stand for numbers. (MS-PS2-2)
  • 7.EE.B.3 - Solve multi-step real-life and mathematical problems posed with positive and negative rational numbers in any form (whole numbers, fractions, and decimals), using tools strategically. Apply properties of operations to calculate with numbers in any form; convert between forms as appropriate; and assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies. (MS-PS2-2)
  • 7.EE.B.4 - Use variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem, and construct simple equations and inequalities to solve problems by reasoning about the quantities. (MS-PS2-2)
  • MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (MS-PS2-2)

Model Course Mapping

First Time Visitors

Resources & Lesson Plans

  • More resources added each week!
    A team of teacher curators is working to find, review, and vet online resources that support the standards. Check back often, as NSTA continues to add more targeted resources.
  • Bridge Types

      In this lesson, students will learn about three major types of bridges, identify tension and compression forces, and build models to discover how and where those forces act on each of the bridge types.  The lesson concludes with a choi ...

  • Inertia Tower

      In these activities, students explore the concept of inertia.  They try to keep a block tower standing when cards are pulled from between the blocks, then compare with what happens when they try the same activity with lighter objects s ...

  • Slinky Drop - (PHENOMENON)

    This is the first in a series of 3 video clips. In this first video, a slinky is held in the air by one end.  The question is asked: when the slinky is let go, will the top fall first, will the bottom fall first, will the slinky “accordion ...

  • Bumper Ducks

    In this game, students use their understanding of momentum, Newton’s 2nd and 3rd Law, and forces, to send rubber ducks through obstacles to a food source.  BumperDucks is an educational physical science game that will help teach players ab ...

  • Acceleration Simulator

    This is an online simulation in which spheres of varying masses are “hit” with varying amounts of force, and the resulting accelerations are displayed in table format.  Students are asked to come up with a rule to explain the relatio ...

  • Force and Motion: Newton's Second Law

    This resource is a Word document comprising a 5-E lesson sequence about the relationship between force, mass and motion. Components include activities, a video clip, a reading with interactive questions, designing and running an experiment, and disc ...

  • Forces and Motion

    A teacher-submitted, NGSS-mindful lesson plan for using the PhET model "Forces and Motion - Basics". The model uses a tug-of-war with participants of different sizes and strengths, placed different distances from the center, in order to sho ...

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  •  Factors Influencing Motion: Newton’s First and Second L ...

    In this series of games, your students will learn about net forces and the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration. The Factors Influencing Motion: Newton’s First and Second Laws learning objective — based on NGSS and state standards — del...

  •  Legends of Learning - Reference Frames and Scale Units

    In this series of games, your students will learn how speed, motion, and other metrics are measured. The Reference Frames and Scale Units learning objective — based on NGSS and state standards — delivers improved student engagement and academic perfo...

  •  Presentation slide deck.pdf

  •  Fun with Bernoulli

    From TeachEngineering - While we know air exists around us all the time, we usually do not notice the air pressure. During this activity, students use Bernoulli's principle to manipulate air pressure so its influence can be seen on the objects around...

  •  Physics Tug of War

    From TeachEngineering - Students learn about Newton's second law of motion: force = mass x acceleration. In other words, a heavy object requires a greater force to move than a lighter object. In a tug-of-war experimental setup using paperclips, rubbe...

  •  Summary of Velocity: Free Fall

    The goal of the Velocity: Free Fall virtual lab is to allow students to investigate how height and mass impact speed and time. Students conduct experiments to understand the relationship between a ball’s mass, its final speed and its acceleration whe...

  •  Summary of Motion and Forces: Introduction

    The goal of the Motion and Forces virtual lab is to allow students to investigate how forces impact the motion of a wooden sled. Students conduct experiments to understand the relationship between height, mass, friction, and gravity.

  •  Summary of Motion and Forces on Different Planetary Bod ...

    The goal of the Motion and Forces virtual lab is to allow students to investigate how forces impact the motion of a wooden sled. Students conduct experiments to understand the relationship between height, mass, friction, and gravity.

Planning Curriculum gives connections to other areas of study for easier curriculum creation.