8th Grade Physical Science : The Physics of Skateboarding Erin C. Conrad Wilkes University
Grade 8, Physical Science: Physics Description of Assessment Project 8th grade science in California is a physical science course, including the disciplines of chemistry, astronomy, and physics. The chemistry strand examines the structure of atoms and the Periodic Table of Elements, physical and chemical properties of elements, compounds, and mixtures, as well the structure and function of macromolecules such as lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. In the astronomy strand, students learn about the composition of the universe, including types of galaxies and stars, characteristics of comets, asteroids, and meteors, and the structure of our solar system. The final strand, physics, gives students an opportunity to explore the forces that effect the motion of objects, including planets, such as gravity and friction. Students also learn how to calculate speed and velocity, and create or interpret graphs that show either speed or position. This assessment plan addresses the content presented during the final unit of the school year, which is based on the physics strand. This unit is the final unit of the year. It has been planned that way to ensure that students remain engaged in the curriculum after the STAR test in late April until the end of the year in June. In this unit, students are asked to explain the forces acting on objects in motion at a skateboard park. Using the flipped classroom model, students will be asked to view short videos prior to class discussion to introduce concepts that will be used for the next class period. Throughout the unit, students will be asked to read and annotate selected reading passages from the text book as well as primary source documents. Students will also use interactive explorations from Discovery Education s Science website to experience the ideas presented
during class discussion. Students will work with their table group to answer review questions during class sessions, and then as individuals, complete a constructed response assignment. Each class session will conclude with a 5 question multiple choice exit ticket to assess understanding of principles and vocabulary. At the conclusion of the unit, students will have designed a model skateboard park that they will present to the class. During this presentation, students will have to explain the forces at work while the marble skater is moving through the park. Cooperative group work will be assessed using the Class Dojo website and ipad app. The strands of physics science are fairly distinct and so this unit stands alone in the class. The content discussed in this unit is not directly related to the content previously taught in the course, although there are opportunities for brief tangents into astronomy to discuss how the motion of planets and other astronomical bodies can be explained using the laws of motion and gravity. This unit falls at the end of the school year because it is a unit that students become deeply engaged in and can hold their attention until the end of the school year. The final presentation is considered the final for the unit and the trimester. How the Assessment Plan fits into Unit of Instruction 1. Assess Prior Knowledge: Performance Assessment: PHET Skateboard Park Exploration At the beginning of the unit, students will be directed to download and install the PHET Skateboard Park Java application. Students will have the opportunity to experiment with different tracks and perimeters and determine the effect those changes have on the motion of the skater shown in the simulation. As students try different combinations of tracks and skaters, we will discuss their prior knowledge of forces and motion, including friction, gravity, laws of
motion, velocity, and acceleration. The application also generates graphs to illustrate the motion of the skater and students will be asked to evaluate those graphs and explain the results with evidence from their explorations. Scoring Criteria: Participate in the PHET Skateboard Park exploration. Contribute to the classroom discussion. 2. Rate, Distance, and Time: Formative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay Questions Prior to class, students will view several short video clips introducing them to the topic of rate, distance, and time. In class, students will read and annotate a reading passage that discusses how to determine an object s position and motion, relative to a reference point. Students will be asked to highlight key facts and definitions and make comments about information that they have questions about while reading or statements from the reading that they have prior experience with or find interesting. Based on the reading and subsequent discussion, students will work with their table groups to answer 7 short answer questions. Scoring Criteria: Contribute to the classroom discussion. Correctly identify position relative to a reference point. Establish a reasonable explanation for the need for a stationary reference point. Calculate average speed. Participate as an active participate in cooperative team work. 3. On the Move: Formative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay Questions Students will complete an exploration using the Discovery Education Science website that requires students to describe the motion of a ball rolling on the bed of a truck. Students will record their data results in a table and then answer 3 analysis questions.
Scoring Criteria: Identify how the motion of the ball as the reference point is changed from an observer on the moving truck to an observer on the sidewalk. Uses language of the discipline. 4. Exit Ticket Quiz: Formative Assessment: Multiple Choice Quiz Following a lesson on rate, position, and speed, students will participate 5 questions multiple choice quiz through the class Edmodo website that will require them to determine appropriate reference points, identify and use the formula used to calculate speed. Scoring Criteria: Grading is based on a 5 point scale. Each question is equally weighted. 5. Summative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay/Performance Assessment Students will determine the fate of a snail if it is traveling at 12 mm/min across a lawn with a lawn mower due to mow that section of grass in 2 hours. Students will then calculate the velocity that the snail will have travel to escape the lawn mower of death and have a safety margin of 30 mm. Finally, students will need to construct a line graph to show both the original velocity and the increased velocity. Scoring Criteria: Define and use speed, velocity, acceleration correctly. Use a proper point of reference. Construct a proper time/distance chart. Confirm the fate of the snail. Properly identify the required changes in speed to insure the snail s survival. Use vocabulary of the discipline. Use V=d/t. 6. Velocity and Acceleration: Formative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay Questions
As an entry event into this section, students will view a clip discussion the physics of pitching. In class, students will read and annotate a reading passage about velocity and acceleration. Based on the reading and subsequent discussion, students will work with their table groups to answer 7 short answer questions. Scoring Criteria: Contribute to the classroom discussion. Correctly identify and calculate the velocity of a moving object. Differentiate between velocity, speed, and acceleration. Describe the velocities of moving objects. Participate as an active participate in cooperative team work. 7. Need for Speed: Formative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay Questions Students will complete an exploration using the Discovery Education Science website in which students determine what factors can cause a change in velocity, resulting in either deceleration or acceleration. Students will record their data results in a table and then answer 3 analysis questions. Scoring Criteria: Identify that changes in speed or direction will result in a change in velocity. Show that a change in velocity is either deceleration or acceleration. Uses language of the discipline. 8. Exit Ticket Quiz: Formative Assessment: Multiple Choice Quiz Following a lesson on velocity and acceleration, students will participate 5 questions multiple choice quiz through the class Edmodo website that will require them to identify or calculate velocity and acceleration. Scoring Criteria: Grading is based on a 5 point scale. Each question is equally weighted.
9. Summative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay/Performance Assessment Students will choose a sport or activity to use as an example of velocity and acceleration. Students will have to identify how the velocities of either the game players or equipment can change throughout game play and how the velocities of the game players or equipment can be measured. Scoring Criteria: Identify a game or sport. Define velocity and acceleration. Propose a reasonable way to accurately a velocity. Identify the 3 kinds of acceleration. Give 3 examples of each type of acceleration. Give at least one example of a combination acceleration. Use language of the discipline.
10. Graphs of Motion: Formative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay Questions As with the other sections of this unit, instruction will begin at home when the students view several video clips showing how speed is calculated and graphed. Students will again read and annotate a reading passage, this time about constructing and using graphs to show changes in speed or position. Based on the reading and subsequent discussion, students will work with their table groups to answer 8 short answer questions. Scoring Criteria: Contribute to the classroom discussion. Participate as an active participate in cooperative team work. Analyze graphs of speed or position and discuss how changes in speed or position would affect the slope of the line in the graph. Compare and contrast position and speed graphs. 11. Exit Ticket Quiz: Formative Assessment: Multiple Choice Quiz Students will participate 5 questions multiple choice quiz through the class Edmodo website that will require them to use and analyze data from graphs of speed or position. Scoring Criteria: Grading is based on a 5 point scale. Each question is equally weighted. 12. Summative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay/Performance Assessment Students will create a speed graph and a position graph based on given data and use those graphs to analyze the motion of a motorcycle. Scoring Criteria: Correctly create line graphs of speed and position. Identifies linear graph and nonlinear graph. Correctly predicts effect of acceleration on slope of graph. Calculates average
speed of motorcycle trip. Defines/uses acceleration. Explains motion for linear and nonlinear graph. Uses language of the discipline. 13. Forces and Motion: Formative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay Questions Students will view video clips showing an experiment to determine if a toy car can travel as fast as a real car when coasting downhill. During class, students will read and annotate a selected passage about forces that act on moving objects. Using the knowledge gained during the reading and class discussions, students will work with their table groups to answer 8 restricted response essay questions. Scoring Criteria: Contribute to the classroom discussion. Participate as an active participate in cooperative team work. Predict the motion that results due to forces acting on an object. Calculate the net force acting on an object when it is subject to unbalanced forces. 14. Monster Truck Pull: Formative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay Questions Students will complete an exploration using the Discovery Education Science website in which students experiment with different forces to determine which forces are balanced or unbalanced. Students will record their data results in a table and then answer 3 analysis questions. Scoring Criteria: Identifies the combination of force that will create balanced forces. Use language of the discipline. 15. Exit Ticket Quiz: Formative Assessment: Multiple Choice Quiz
Following a lesson on force and motion, students will participate 5 questions multiple choice quiz through the class Edmodo website that will require them to identify the effect of forces and calculate motion due to force. Scoring Criteria: Grading is based on a 5 point scale. Each question is equally weighted. 16. Summative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay/Performance Assessment Students will analyze two different tug-of-war scenarios, one showing balanced forces and the other showing unbalanced forces. Students will have to explain the forces acting on the tug-ofwar teams and predict the outcome of the two scenarios. Scoring Criteria: Draw and label force arrows for at least two forces per diagram. Correctly interpret the cumulative effect of all forces in a situation. Correctly identify and describe balanced ad unbalanced forces. Use F=ma or relate mass and acceleration to force applied. Analyze a non-losing strategy for the smaller team. Use language of the discipline. 17. Forces Acting on an Object: Formative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay Questions Students will view video clips about gravity as a force that changes the motion of objects. During class, students will read and annotate a selected passage about gravity. Using the knowledge gained during the reading and class discussions, students will work with their table groups to answer 10 restricted response essay questions. Scoring Criteria: Contribute to the classroom discussion. Participate as an active participate in cooperative team work. Explain Newton s first law of motion. Explain gravity as a force. Describe the forces acting on a object at rest. Identify forces that are causing objects to move.
18. Lose Weight without Dieting: Formative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay Questions Students will complete an exploration using the Discovery Education Science website to explore how the force of gravity is different in different places throughout our solar system. Students will record their data results in a table and then answer 3 analysis questions. Scoring Criteria: Identifies the change in gravity pulling on an object if the object is in different places throughout the solar system. Use language of the discipline. 19. Slippery Slope: Formative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay Questions Students will complete an exploration using the Discovery Education Science website to demonstrate how the force of friction will change depending on the surface and how changes in friction will change the motion of objects. Students will record their data results in a table and then answer 3 analysis questions. Scoring Criteria: Identifies which surface combination resulted in the longest and shortest distance traveled. Identifies which surface combination caused the lowest and highest friction. Describes the relationship between the amount of friction and the distance traveled. Uses language of the discipline. 20. Exit Ticket Quiz: Formative Assessment: Multiple Choice Quiz Following a lesson on friction and gravity, students will participate 5 questions multiple choice quiz through the class Edmodo website that will require them to calculate the net force acting on an object.
Scoring Criteria: Grading is based on a 5 point scale. Each question is equally weighted. 21. Summative Assessment: Restricted Response Essay/Performance Assessment Students will analyze the forces acting on two apples falling normally. Students will then analyze the forces if one apple was dropped with a parachute attached to it. Students will describe the results of all the forces on either apple. Students will draw and label a diagram showing these forces. Scoring Criteria: Uses the equation, v=d/t. Explains gravity as a universal force. The use of friction is as it applies to the apples is accurate. The concept of unbalanced forces is used. Defines force. Identifies air resistance as the source of friction force. Diagrams are properly labeled showing all forces. Identifies velocity as speed in a specific direction. Use language of the discipline.
22. Skateboard Park Design: Performance Assessment: Build a Skateboard Park In a team of 3 or 4, students will use a variety of materials to build a model skateboard park. Students will have to use the concepts learned in the prior 6 lessons to ensure that the marble skater can move through the park without stopping and without outside assistance. Students will be able to buy the right to use certain obstacles with construction cash earned in the previous class sessions. Each obstacle is assigned a specific point value, based on the amount of energy used to flow through the obstacle. Scoring Criteria: Parks will be given a score in which the value of obstacles multiplies if the skater can flow from one obstacle to the next. Values will only be added if the marble skater has to have outside assistance to move from one obstacle to the next. Three times the value of the obstacle will be deducted if the marble skater is injured during the flow of the course. Injuries occur if the marble skater drops more than twice it s own height or hits an obstacle or park of the park directly. Parks will be given a score of 1-4 each for creativity, use of a theme, and safety. 23. Performance Assessment: Skateboard Park Presentation Teams will present their final park model to the class. Teams will have to demonstrate the model using a marble skater. Teams will also have to explain the motion of the marble and the forces at work as the marble moves through the park, using the language of the discipline. Scoring Criteria: Park is demonstrated with a marble skater. Language of the discipline is used to describe the motion of the marble skater.
24. Unit Assessment: Summative Assessment: Unit test At the conclusion of the unit, students will take a 25-question multiple choice, fill in the blank and matching test on motion, forces, and related vocabulary. Scoring Criteria: Grading is based on a 25 point scale. Each question is equally weighted. 25. Formative Assessment: Affect Survey Students will take a 2 question online survey to reflect on their skills as a member of a cooperative group and the group s ability to work together as a team to accomplish a goal. Scoring Criteria: This item will not be scored for grading purposes. It is intended for personal reflection. Students should answer all questions honestly.
Learning Targets Matched to Effective Methods of Assessment 1. Knowledge and Simple Understanding Students will show understanding of the relationship between potential and kinetic energy by observing a graph of those energies created by a simulated skater and drawing conclusions about the inverse relationship between kinetic and potential energy. Students will show understanding of reference points and the speed formula by taking a 5 question multiple choice test. Students will show understanding of acceleration by completing the DE Science exploration Need for Speed and completing a chart showing what circumstances result in a change in velocity. Students will show understanding of velocity, speed, and acceleration by taking a 5 question multiple choice test. Students will show understanding of the use and creation of speed and position graphs by taking a 5 question multiple choice test. Students will show understanding of how forces can be balanced or unbalanced by completing the DE Science exploration Monster Truck Pull and completing a chart showing which combination of trucks result in winning teams. Students will show understanding of the use and creation of speed and position graphs by taking a 5 question multiple choice test.
Students will show understanding of the role of gravity in determining weight by completing the DE Science exploration Lose Weight Without Dieting and answering 3 analysis questions. Students will show understanding of friction as a force by completing the DE Science exploration Slippery Slope and answering 3 analysis questions. Students will show understanding of the role of gravity as a force on earth by taking a 5 question multiple choice test. 2. Deep understanding and reasoning Students will show understanding that the motion of a moving object is dependent upon the location of the observer by observing and recording the distances traveled by a rolling ball on a moving truck when the observer is on the truck and then when the observer is on the sidewalk. Students will show understanding of how to determine position relative to a reference point and calculate average speed by answering 7 restricted response essay questions with their team. Students will show understanding of velocity, speed, and acceleration by answering 7 restricted response essay questions with their team. Students will show understanding of analysis of graphs of speed and position by answering 8 restricted response essay questions with their team. Students will show understanding of forces that act on objects by answering 8 restricted response essay questions with their team.
Students will understand that when an object is subject to two or more forces at once (balanced or unbalanced), the result is the cumulative effect of all the forces, in both direction and magnitude by writing a perfect paragraph analyzing a "tug of war" scenario to determine the forces acting on each team and the rope, identifying the forces using arrows showing direction and magnitude, and declaring a winning team, justifying their reasoning. Students will show understanding of the role of gravity as a force by answering 10 restricted response essay questions with their team. 3. Skills Students will show understanding of how to use the speed formula to calculate distances traveled in a specific time and be able to predict the necessary change in velocity to travel a certain distance in a specific time by determining the fate of a snail threatened by the lawn mower of death and writing about their calculations in a perfect paragraph. Students will understand how motion can be graphed and how those graphs can be interpreted by creating graphs of speed and acceleration based on given data and using the language of the discipline to write a perfect paragraph analyzing the data. Students will show understanding of safe construction techniques by using hot glue guns and x-acto knives conscientiously and with the safety of others in mind. 4. Product
Students will understand velocity, acceleration, and what can cause changes in both by creating a visual display (poster, brochure, movie, keynote) that shows examples of velocity, acceleration, changes in acceleration, and changes in velocity in a specific sport. Students will demonstrate understanding of the forces that affect moving objects by describing, with labeled diagrams, the forces that act upon a falling apple. Students will demonstrate understanding of physics as it applies to skateboarding by creating a multimedia presentation to be shown to the class. 5. Affect Students will understand how to be a member of a collaborative team. Students will demonstrate this by contributing positively during team discussions and willingly taking on the roles assigned to them, and reflecting on their effort during the project by writing a self-reflection paragraph, participating in group and self evaluations, and by the teacher using the ClassDojo website and app.