Unit 4 — Force and Motion

• Students apply Newton's third law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.
• Students define a design problem involving the motion of two colliding objects that can be solved through the development of an object, tool, process, or system and that includes multiple criteria and constraints, including scientific knowledge that may limit possible solutions.
• Students evaluate competing design solutions involving the motion of two colliding objects based on jointly developed and agreed-upon design criteria.
• Students develop a model to generate data to test ideas about designed systems, including those representing inputs and outputs.
• Students analyze and interpret data to determine similarities and differences in findings.

Unit Test to demonstrate understanding of thermal energy transfer; Design a device that will allow outdoor enthusiasts to heat their food to a certain temperature and for the food to stay at that temperature for an extended period of time after being removed from the heat.

STAR 360/ MAP Testing; SGO Testing

Students may demonstrate understanding through a hands-on investigation with teacher guidance, where they conduct a simplified force and motion experiment and explain their observations orally or with labeled diagrams and sentence frames. Manipulatives, visual models of forces, and step-by-step checklists may be provided to support planning and explanation of Newton's third law concepts.

Students with IEPs may benefit from visual models and diagrams that illustrate force relationships and motion concepts, such as labeled diagrams showing action-reaction force pairs, to support processing of abstract physics principles. Providing directions for investigations and design challenges in numbered, simplified steps — along with a model of an expected output — can reduce cognitive load during multi-part tasks. Teachers should offer flexible output options, such as oral explanations or annotated sketches, as alternatives to extended written responses when students are demonstrating understanding of Newton's Third Law or design criteria. Breaking the iterative design process into monitored checkpoints with frequent feedback will help students stay on track across the unit's 25-day arc.

Students with 504 plans should be provided extended time during investigations and design evaluation tasks, as the multi-step nature of data collection and analysis can require additional processing time. Preferential seating near demonstrations and reduced-distraction workspaces will support focus during hands-on lab and design activities. Printed copies of any directions or force-and-motion content displayed on the board should be provided so students can reference them independently throughout each task.

Multilingual learners should have access to visual supports — such as illustrated vocabulary references featuring key terms like force, mass, motion, collision, and Newton's Third Law — displayed throughout the unit to bridge content language with conceptual understanding. Teachers should use physical demonstrations and hands-on materials first before introducing technical vocabulary, allowing students to connect observed phenomena to new language. Simplified, step-by-step directions for investigations and design tasks should be provided, and students should be encouraged to sketch, label, or explain their reasoning in their home language as a bridge to English expression.

Students who need additional support should be connected to the unit's concepts through familiar, concrete examples of forces and motion encountered in everyday life, such as pushing a cart or a ball bouncing, before moving into more abstract applications of Newton's Third Law. Investigations and design tasks can be scaffolded by reducing the number of variables students are asked to track at one time, allowing them to build confidence with one concept before layering complexity. Structured graphic organizers that guide students through defining design criteria, collecting data, and comparing solutions can provide the entry-level framework these students need to engage meaningfully with the engineering design cycle.

Gifted students should be challenged to extend their understanding of Newton's Third Law and net force by exploring real-world engineering contexts — such as vehicle safety systems or aerospace propulsion — where force and motion principles are applied under complex constraints. Rather than simply completing the design cycle, these students can be encouraged to pursue deeper analysis by independently varying multiple factors in their models and developing quantitative arguments about why one design solution outperforms another. Teachers might invite gifted learners to examine the trade-offs between competing design solutions at a systems level, considering broader impacts on people or the environment, and to communicate their reasoning through a format of their choosing, such as a written technical argument or a presented design proposal.