This lesson was implemented with a group of six 3rd-5th grade students. I started off with two demonstrations explaining to the students that each of the demonstrations had something in common and asked them to try to figure out what. The first was an activity called Newton’s Beads, in which I moved a 50 ft string of beads from one glass to another where the beads appear to jump up out of the first glass as it moves into the second. The link to the beads I used, with a still picture of the demonstration, is http://www.docgizmosciencedemos.com/product/DG4. The second demonstration involved setting a card with a quarter on top of a glass, flicking the card and watching the quarter drop into the glass. The kids were amazed and totally engaged for the remainder of the lesson in which they got to complete the activities themselves while trying to figure out what was happening and watched a fun, short video on inertia that really helped them figure out and connect with Newton’s First Law of Motion.
The majority of my assessment was done through observing students work and discussing with students how each of the examples demonstrated inertia. The students did record their observations, predictions and final explanations of what was happening in each activity. I am including two of the students’ written work. The students were also asked to think of everyday situations involving inertia, which they successfully did. However, this was the part of the lesson I was hoping they would delve deeper into. In a classroom, I would hope that I would be able to devout a couple of lesson periods to this in order to allow students time to research examples of inertia and implications, such as safety concerns and solutions.
