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The Classroom Space-Dock Challenge

Investigate balanced and unbalanced pulls in a classroom docking game. Use test results to predict motion and plan fair tests.

Grade 3ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to3-PS2-1

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
14 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 3
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students use observations to explain how balanced pulls affect resting and moving objects.
Students predict motion changes caused by unbalanced pulls.
Students identify fair tests and useful measurements for investigating forces.

How to use

Read the investigation together and review the graph's units. Have students predict motion before explaining their evidence. The investigation can be explored entirely on paper.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

3-PS2-1

Investigate how balanced and unbalanced forces change, or do not change, an object's motion.

Preview

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The Classroom Space-Dock Challenge

Use force-test evidence to predict how a disk will move.

1. Examine the Test Evidence

Read the investigation and graph. Use the evidence to answer the questions.

A Disk Becomes a Spacecraft

Room 12 turns a small air table into a pretend space dock. Air flows through tiny holes and lifts a light disk just above the table. The disk is the spacecraft. Soft strings attached to opposite sides let the teacher pull it left and right. Matching spring scales show whether the pulls are equal or which pull is stronger.

The teacher operates the equipment. The class keeps the same disk, level table, and level strings for every trial. Students record the disk's direction and the distance it travels during each second. Upward and downward forces stay balanced. For this investigation, ignore the tiny rubbing force. Compare only the left and right pulls.

Trial A: The disk starts at rest. Equal pulls act left and right. The disk stays at its starting mark.

Trial B: The disk starts at rest. The left pull is the same as in Trial A, but the right pull is stronger. The disk begins moving right.

Trial C: The disk starts moving right. Equal pulls act left and right. It travels 6 centimeters in each of three one-second intervals.

Trial D: The disk starts moving right at the same speed as in Trial C. The left pull is stronger than the right pull. The graph shows how far it travels right during each one-second interval.