Mathematics Grade Prototype Curriculum Guide

Sample assessment

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  Ask students to describe the motion of several runs of the cars down the ramp. They should include the important parts of a description of the motion of an object — i.e., direction of travel, distance traveled, and speed of travel.
  
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  Ask the students:
  

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  What form of energy does the car have when it is moving? (Kinetic energy)
  
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  Why does the car slow down when coasting across the floor? (Friction)
  
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  Why does the car speed up going down the ramp? (Because of the force of gravity, which is a force acting on the car that changes its motion)
  

Follow-up/extension

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  For homework, have students draw and describe an inclined plane that they or their parents use around the house. Ask students to describe what job or jobs this simple machine helps us to do more easily.
  

Resources

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  Connections: Connecting Books to the Virginia SOLs. Fairfax County Public Schools and The College of William and Mary. http://www.fcps.edu/cpsapps/connections. Presents a database of more than 1,000 works of children’s literature and their connection to the Virginia Standards of Learning.
  
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  Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12. National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). http://www.nsta.org/ostbc.
  
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  Science Museum of Virginia. http://www.smv.org/.
  
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  Search for Literature: Literature for Science and Mathematics. California Department of Education. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/sc/ll/ap/searchlist.asp. Offers a searchable database.
  

Inclined Plane Data Sheet
Scientist’s name:___________________ Group: _________Date:______
Materials
Per group of 3 or 4 students:

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  Toy car
  
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  Piece of stiff cardboard or thin wood about 50 cm long and 30 cm wide to use as a ramp (inclined plane)
  
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  Stack of books for use in increasing the height of the ramp
  
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  Roll of masking tape
  
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  Meter stick
  
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  Marker
  
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  1 or 2 pieces of poster board
  

Hypothesis
If the height of the hill is increased, then the distance that the car travels will ______________.
Inclined Plane Data Chart

Approximate Height of Hill	Actual Height of Hill	Distance Car Traveled
Small Hill (10 cm)		Centimeters	Meters
Medium Hill (20 cm)
Large Hill (30 cm)

On Your Mark! / Start Your Engines!

Organizing Topic Investigating Motion

Overview Students collect data during student sprints or toy car races. They use the data collected to create a time-and-position line graph.

Related Standards of Learning 4.1d, e, f, h; 4.2a

Objectives

The students should be able to

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  collect and display in a table and line graph time and position data for a moving object;
  
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  interpret data to determine if the speed of an object is increasing, decreasing, or remaining the same;
  
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  explain that speed is a measure of motion.
  

Materials needed

Activity A:

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  5-meter length of string
  
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  5 stopwatches
  
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  Attached “On Your Mark!” data sheet
  
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  Graph paper
  

Activity B:

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  11 meter sticks
  
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  Matchbox™ car
  
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  5 stopwatches
  
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  Attached “Start Your Engines!” data sheet
  
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  Piece of stiff cardboard or wooden board for a ramp
  
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  Overhead projector (optional)
  

Follow-up/extension:

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  “The Trip” attachments
  

Instructional activity

Content/Teacher Notes

The time-and-position table on the attached “On Your Mark!” data sheet makes it possible to make a graph in order to visualize the motion of objects, such as people, over a period of time.
Activity A: Student Races

Introduction

1. Ask students how they could determine which student in the class is the fastest runner. One method would be to have all students run a foot race. But what if only one student at a time could run? How would the fastest be determined? Ask students to voice their ideas. Then show them a stopwatch, and ask them to explain what it is and what it does.

2. Explain to the students that the class will be conducting timed races outside for any student who would like to participate as a runner or as a timer.

Procedure

1. Demonstrate for students the proper operation of the stopwatch. Then, have students practice using a stopwatch.

2. Take students outside to a place in the schoolyard where you can conduct a footrace.

3. Choose five student volunteers to be the timers, and instruct them to use the 5-meter length of string to position themselves 5 meters apart. Have them mark their positions so they can find them again without measuring.

4. Give each of the five students a stopwatch after they have positioned themselves.

5. Choose a student volunteer to be the runner, and position the runner 5 meters before the first stopwatch.

6. Direct the timers to start their stopwatches as soon as you give the “GO” command. (“On your mark! Get set! GO!”) As the runner passes each timer, the timer should stop his/her stopwatch. When the runner has completed the 25-meter race, ask each timer to call out the time on his/her stopwatch, and have each student record the times on his/her data sheet to the nearest tenth of a second.

7. Allow all students the chance to be a runner and/or a timer.

8. Return to the classroom, and give each student a sheet of graph paper. Have students write the name of the activity at the top of the sheet. Instruct them to label the x-axis with the 5-meter intervals (i.e., 5 m, 10 m, 15 m, 20 m, 25 m) and the y-axis with seconds (1 through 10 should be enough).

9. Have each student graph either his/her own time or the time of one of the runners.
Activity B: Toy Car Races

As an alternative, “Start Your Engines!” is an indoor activity which measures the number of seconds a Matchbox™ car rolls along a track when released from different ramp heights.

Procedure

1. Set up a racetrack by laying two rows of meter sticks end to end for five meters. Between the two rows leave about 15 cm for the “roadway.”

2. At one end of the track, place the ramp so that it is raised 10 cm from the floor.

3. Place one student timer with stopwatch at each meter interval.

4. Choose a student to be the “driver,” and have the “driver” hold the car at the top of the ramp.

5. Direct the timers to start their stopwatches as the car is released; direct the “driver” to release the car when you say “GO.” As the car passes in front of each timer, the timer should stop his/her stopwatch.

6. Ask each timer to call out the time on his/her stopwatch, and have each student record the times on his/her data sheet to the nearest tenth of a second.

7. Allow all students the chance to be a “driver” and/or a timer.

8. Have students graph the data of one of the car’s runs on graph paper as described in step 8 of the activity above.

Observations and Conclusions

1. Discuss the steady rate at which the data climbs up the graph. Why does this happen?

2. It may be helpful to the students if the teacher completed one or two runners’ data on a graph on the overhead projector.