3rd Unit of Inquiry- Forces and Motion/Reading informational

Our 3rd UOI unit was Forces and Motion. This unit ties in with HTWW (how the world works). Our central idea for our unit was Exploring the connection between forces & motion enables people to understand their application. Some of our lines of inquiry were:       

• The application of forces in our lives
• Variables that impact motion
• The process of scientific inquiry

In our unit, we had many exciting activities and tasks to help us learn about our unit. These are some of my favorites:

Reading books about Forces and Motion+ taking visual notes

At the beginning of the unit, Miss P divided us into 3 or 4 reading groups. Beata, Ghnema, Andrey and myself were all in a reading group called Maghabean. Don't ask why, you'll regret it. Every few days, we'd get a new book about forces and motion. This is what we'd have to do with it.

1. Read the book as a reader. (Read the book one time through)

2. Read the book as a writer. (Read again, but take visual notes as you read)

3. Label sketches with a phrase or one word

4. Discuss with reading group your findings/sketches/and notes. Talk about what you learned

5. (On a poster) Discuss with group who has the best sketches for an idea and each draw it on the poster.

We learned about magnetism, gravity, inertia, acceleration, friction, buoyancy, air/water pressure etc. It was really fun, and my favorite part is when we got to be in groups and share our learning:)

Forces in my Life Project

After doing our research through the books, Miss P decided to "quiz" us by giving us an assignment that was about forces and motion in our life. We had to take all of our knowledge of forces and motion, and take 5-10 pictures of forces/motions in our house or community. Then, on a google slides, we'd put one picture on one slide and write what the force/motion is, its application, and its function. I really liked this activity especially because we got to do it for homework!! Here is one of my slides:

Science Fair

Now it's the time we've all been waiting for! The grand finale. Now it's time to share ALL OF OUR LEARNING in one giant experiment! This is what we had to do:

1. Research about an experiment that we want to present at the science fair

2. Conduct the experiment at school and take pictures/videos while doing it.

3. Change one variable and do the experiment again with the variable change. Take pictures/videos while doing it.

4. Take pictures of your process (scientific)

5. Create a slides or poster (I chose poster) and paste pictures, captions, and bring a model of your experiment to school

I decided to do a water pressure experiment. To find my experiment, I found a website online, but changed a bit for the variable change and not the variable change! To see the experiment on the website, Here is where you'll find it! I LOVED THE SCIENCE FAIR!!!! It was so fun to present to other people and share my findings!

  

OVERALL, I LOVED THIS UNIT!!!! It helped me in my understanding on forces and motions and their jobs and what can affect them. Thank you 5th grade teachers for this amazing idea:)