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Contents

• Introduction
• Kit Topics
• Objectives
• Themes and Concepts
• District Standards
• Assessment

Introduction

The Balance and Motion unit is a Full Option Science System (FOSS) kit created by the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. It is published by Delta Education.

In the Balance and Motion kit, students balance cardboard shapes and pencils, and make mobiles to explore balance, counterbalance, and stability. They investigate spinning motion with tops, zoomers, and whirlers, and rolling motion with wheel-and-axle systems, rolling cups, and marbles in runways.

Kit Topics

Activity 1: Balance

Part 1: Trick Crayfish

Part 2: Triangle and Arch

Part 3: The Pencil Trick

Part 4: Mobiles

Activity 2: Spinners

Part 1: Tops

Part 2: Zoomers

Part 3: Twirlers

Activity 3: Rollers

Part 1: Rolling Wheels

Part 2: Rolling Cups

Part 3: Rolling Spheres

Session 1: Short Runways

Session 2: Long Runways

Objectives

Students are expected to:

• develop a growing curiosity and interest in the motion of objects.
• investigate materials constructively during free exploration and in a guided discovery mode.
• solve problems through trial and error .
• develop persistence in tackling a problem.
• explore concepts of balance, counterweight, and stability.
• observe systems that are unstable and modify them to reach equilibrium.
• discover different ways to produce rotational motion.
• construct and observe toys that spin.
• explore and describe some of the variables that influence the motion of rolling spheres.
• acquire the vocabulary associated with balance and motion.
• gain early experiences that will contribute to their understanding of several pervasive themes that relate one scientific idea to another: Change and Interaction.

Themes and Concepts

Activity 1: Balance

Themes:

• Change
• Interaction

Concepts:

• Many different objects and shapes can be made to balance
• A stable position is one that an object or system returns to after being put into motion
• The point of balance of an object or system can be changed by counterweighting
• A mobile is a system of balanced beams and masses

Activity 2: Spinners

Themes:

• Change
• Interaction

Concepts:

• Objects and systems that go around exhibit rotational motion
• There are different kinds of rotational motion
• The amount and position of mass affects how an object or system rotates
• There are different ways to initiate rotational motion in objects and systems

Activity 3: Rollers

Themes:

• Change
• Interaction

Concepts:

• Disks (wheels) and spheres roll down hill
• Axles support wheels
• Wheel-and-axle systems with wheels of different sizes roll toward the smaller wheel
• The amount and location of mass affects how objects and systems roll

District Standards

The Balance and Motion kit meets the following District Standards:

Standard 1. Students understand the processes of scientific investigation and design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such investigations. (1.a., 1.b., 1.c., 1.d.)

Standard 2. Students know and understand common properties, forms, and changes in matter and energy. (2.1.a., 2.2.a., 2.2.b., 2.3.a., 2.3.b., 2.3.c.)

Standard 5. Students know and understand interrelationships among science, technology, and human activity and how they can affect the world. (5.d.)

Standard 6. Students understand that science involves a particular way of knowing and understand common connections among scientific disciplines. (6.a., 6.c., 6.d.)

Assessment

Ongoing Assessment procedures are used to review the learning that has taken place and to give evidence of what students have learned or what they can do. Opportunities for assessing student advancement are presented in the context of the step-by-step plans and the suggested Home and School Extensions. What the children do, what they communicate, and the way they express themselves all contribute to understanding the learning that has taken place. The practices promoted in the FOSS program encourage students to express their learning in their most effective mode--writing, speaking, drawing, or building.

Four areas to assess

1. doing science
2. effective use of science thinking processes
3. ability to communicate understanding of science
4. use of precise science vocabulary

Assessment activities

The FOSS assessment activities are embedded in the context of the science instruction activities and extensions. Within the lesson plans are check icons in the sidebars along with notes describing how to check student progress.

This web page is maintained by Joan E. Grant.