So, you’re looking for examples of balanced and unbalanced forces lessons and activities for your classroom. Hopefully, I’m here to help! So, if you’ve followed me for any period of time, you’ll notice that I LOVE almost every topic that I teach and that they are all my favorite. What can I say, I love science! Well, this time, I’m not AS excited about this topic. Mostly weather and biology topics are my jam, but physical science and chemistry, not so much; however, I’m here today to tell you, that if you’re in my place, there are some nice activities that can make your physical science unit so much fun, including those that can reduce cognitive load! Truly, the more that I teach these topics, the more that I grow to love them. There are so many STEM activities that you can do!
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Hook Students with Examples Of Balanced and Unbalanced Forces in Daily Life – Step 1
Before you teach a bit of content, you have to get your students hooked in. The best way to do this is to actually show them examples of these types of forces, but the catch is, you can’t tell them. One of my favorite things to do is to actually play a game of tug-of-war. I used to borrow ropes and such from the PE teacher in the school.
Depending on the size of the room, you can do this inside or outside. You can also choose to let the whole class play a game of tug-of-war, or just choose a few volunteers.
After students play, you can ask them some questions:
- What happened during the game?
- Did the rope move?
- Did the rope remain stationary at any point?
- Why did this happen?
- And so on…
Don’t have a rope? There are many other ways that you can get your students attention. I used to let my students watch this silly little video. The students thought it was SO cheesy but were into it. This video DOES get into the content some, but still can be used to grab their attention before you dive in.
Another activity that you can do to get your students thinking about the forces around them is to have them to try to push the wall.
After the class or a few students try to do this, ask them questions such as:
- Why didn’t the wall move?
- Do you think it would move if you pushed harder?
- What do you think it would take to make the wall move?
- Why is that so?
- And so on…
Another thing that I used to hook students into the content was to arm wrestle with my students. So much fun!
Ditch The Balanced and Unbalanced Forces Worksheet – Step 2
Now, that you’ve taken an inquiry-based approach to the content, it’s time to delve into the material. I’m a huge cheerleader for reducing your students cognitive load. When you give students the content in chunks and let them process it before moving on, there is SO much more success reducing cognitive load, and they will be able to remember the content better.
That’s why I like to ditch the paper notes and the worksheets that go along with them and use DIGITAL INTERACTIVE LESSONS. They are my absolute favorite. Whether you give direct instruction, have your students to take notes at their own pace, have your students work in groups, already have something for forces, and just need a review, the Balanced and Unbalanced Forces Digital Interactive Lesson is right for you!
This lesson works with Google Slides and PowerPoint, gives the definition of balanced and unbalanced forces, give examples of balanced and unbalanced forces, Newton’s laws, gives several examples and practice for net force and SO much more. It’s pretty much a lesson and activities all-in-one.
It’s fun, engaging, and also has many researched-based activities to help your students retain the content and succeed.
Balanced and Unbalanced Forces Activity – Step 3
Now that you’ve hooked them into the content, they’ve learned the material, now it’s time to explore even further.
There are SO many labs that you can check out on Google and Pinterest, but I’ll share a quick experiment that you can do with your students that is EASY and doesn’t require a lot of materials.
It’s the Balloon Rocket Lab! I would always do this outside.
Directions:
- Gather your materials. You will need: two chairs, yarn, tape, straw, balloon, and something to measure with.
- Make your students aware of the big question: What will happen when I release a balloon rocket with different amounts of force? Then students can create their own hypothesis.
- Do the experiment!
- Tie one side of a piece of yarn (3 meters long) to a chair.
- Put the yarn through a straw.
- Tie the loose end of the yarn to another chair.
- Using two pieces of tape, attach a deflated balloon to the straw.
- Carefully inflate the balloon to a small size, place it at the beginning of the yarn, and release the air.
- Measure how far the balloon traveled.
Repeat twice, each time increasing the size of the balloon
Collecting Data:
On a sheet of paper, students can create a 2-column table. On the left side, students can record the size of the balloon for each trial, and in the second column, students can record the distance that the balloon traveled.
Reflection:
After students complete the lab, have them to answer some follow up questions.
- Was your hypothesis right or wrong?
- When you released the balloon, where the forces balanced or unbalanced? Why?
- Which of Newton’s Laws was modeled in this activity (can be more than one)? Explain.
This is a great, fairly quick activity that can be engaging and effective for your students. This is great for those 45 minute class periods!
May be the Force be With You – A Little Something Extra
Ok, so I can be a little extra sometimes, but I do believe in hype. Sometimes, some of the science content can be a little dry, or just something that your students aren’t particular interested in, but you are more likely to get them engaged if you hype them up.
So, after saying all of that, one of the most awesome things that you can do is to hype them up. For this particular unit, force, it reminds me of Star Wars! How cool would it be if your students dressed as a Star Wars character for the day, or even the week! You could even deck out your classroom if you have the time.
Your classroom will be what you make it!
I know that some student just don’t have Star Wars stuff on hand, so there are some cheaper things you can purchase or ask for on platform like Donor’s Choose.
These Star Wars masks are precious, and they come with 12!
I also know that baby Yoda is huge! Check out these precious tattoos!
More Resources for Teaching Balanced and Unbalanced Forces
There are so many great resources out there to help make this topic successful for you and your students!
Balanced and Unbalanced Forces
Motion Madness: Balanced and Unbalanced
Learn more about helping your students master science content!
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