COLLISIONS!

                              Navigators 2010

                              created by Ms. S.

During this unit you will try to solve a mystery: what caused the collision? Using what you learn about force and motion, you and your teammates will make a hypothesis about what caused a huge collision, and back it up with evidence gathered in class and from your own research.  You'll get to present to a panel of experts on April 6th and 7th.  Good luck!

Student Resources                        Performance Task (Final Project)                      Lessons                                 Teacher Resources

     Block A                                                 Block B                                             Block C                                          Block D

Big Ideas

At the end of this unit, we will understand that:

(1) In science, you can't just make a statement, you have to back it up with evidence.  We need to always answer the question "How do you know?"

(2) Everything is constantly moving, but by studying how things move, we can predict where an object will go.

(3) Force is an influence that can change how an object is moving.

Big Questions

What causes collisions? What makes some collisions more deadly than others?

How can we prevent car accidents through our knowledge of force and motion?

Why do things move?

How can we tell how far or fast something will move?

How do things speed up?

Why do things fall?

More Specific Questions

(1) What are mass, velocity and momentum?  How are they related? How do we measure them?

(2) What is acceleration?  How can it be defined by force and mass?

(3) How does force affect an object’s velocity?

(4) What is gravitational force?  What defines it? How can it be calculated?