ALEX Learning Activity

  

Rolling Balls

A Learning Activity is a strategy a teacher chooses to actively engage students in learning a concept or skill using a digital tool/resource.

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  This learning activity provided by:  
Author: YVETTE AKRIDGE
System:Andalusia City
School:Andalusia City Board Of Education
  General Activity Information  
Activity ID: 2226
Title:
Rolling Balls
Digital Tool/Resource:
Rolling Balls
Web Address – URL:
Overview:

This learning activity should be used during a lesson to make predictions, record observations, and create a hypothesis to help fully understand the relationship between potential and kinetic energy. Students will observe and record the results of three different balls rolling down an inclined plane towards a cardboard box. Students will hypothesize the reason the balls made the cardboard box move. 

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Development Summit.
  Associated Standards and Objectives  
Content Standard(s):
Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 8
Physical Science
13 ) Create and analyze graphical displays of data to illustrate the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass and speed of an object (e.g., riding a bicycle at different speeds, hitting a table tennis ball versus a golf ball, rolling similar toy cars with different masses down an incline).

Insight Unpacked Content
Scientific And Engineering Practices:
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Crosscutting Concepts: Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
Disciplinary Core Idea: Energy
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • Create graphical displays of data to illustrate relationships of kinetic energy to the mass and the speed of an object.
  • Analyze graphical displays of data to illustrate relationships of kinetic energy to the mass and speed of an object.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • Graphical display
  • Data
  • Kinetic energy
  • Motion
  • Mass
  • Speed linear
  • Nonlinear
  • Proportional
Knowledge:
Students know:
  • Kinetic energy is energy that an object possesses due to its motion or movement.
  • Kinetic energy increases if either the mass or the speed of the object increases or both.
  • Kinetic energy decreases if either the mass or the speed of the object decreases or both. The relationship between kinetic energy and mass is a linear proportional relationship (KE ∝ m).
  • In the linear proportional relationship, the kinetic energy doubles as the mass of the object doubles.
  • In the linear proportional relationship, the kinetic energy halves as the mass of the object halves.
  • The relationship between kinetic energy and speed is a nonlinear (square) proportional relationship (KE ∝ v2).
  • In the nonlinear proportional relationship, the kinetic energy quadruples as the speed of the object doubles.
  • In the nonlinear proportional relationship, the kinetic energy decreases by a factor of four as the speed of the object is cut in half.
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • Develop a graphical display of data that illustrates the relationships between kinetic energy and the mass and speed of an object.
  • Use observations from the display of data to provide causal accounts for events and make predictions for events by constructing explanations.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • The relationship between kinetic energy, mass, and speed is proportional.
AMSTI Resources:
AMSTI Module:
Experimenting with Forces and Motion
NAEP Framework
NAEP Statement:
P8.14b: An object's position can be measured and graphed as a function of time.

NAEP Statement:
P8.14c: An object's speed can be measured and graphed as a function of time.
Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 8
Physical Science
16 ) Apply the law of conservation of energy to develop arguments supporting the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object (e.g., bowling ball hitting pins, brakes being applied to a car).

Insight Unpacked Content
Scientific And Engineering Practices:
Engaging in Argument from Evidence
Crosscutting Concepts: Energy and Matter
Disciplinary Core Idea: Energy
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • Apply the law of conservation of energy to develop arguments supporting the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • Law of Conservation of Energy
  • Argument
  • Claim
  • Kinetic Energy
  • Energy Transfer
  • System
Knowledge:
Students know:
  • Kinetic energy is energy that an object possesses due to its motion or movement.
  • Changes in kinetic energy may include changes in motion, temperature, or other observable features of an object.
  • When the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from that object.
  • When the kinetic energy of an object increases or decreases, the energy of other objects or the surroundings within the system increases or decreases, indicating that energy was transferred to or form the object.
  • The Law of Conservation of Energy states that in a closed system, the total energy of the system is conserved and energy is neither created nor destroyed.
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • Make a claim about a given explanation or model for a phenomenon, including the idea that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from that object .
  • Identify and describe the given evidence that supports the claim.
  • Evaluate the evidence and identify its strengths and weaknesses.
  • Use reasoning to connect the necessary and sufficient evidence and construct the argument.
  • Present oral or written arguments to support or refute the given explanation or model for the phenomenon.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • The law of conservation of energy states that in a closed system, the total amount of energy remains constant and energy is neither created nor destroyed.
  • Energy can be converted from one form to another, but the total energy within the system remains fixed.
  • Energy can be transferred between objects in the system.
AMSTI Resources:
AMSTI Module:
Electricity, Waves, and Information Transfer
NAEP Framework
NAEP Statement:
P12.16: Total energy is conserved in a closed system.

NAEP Statement:
P8.12a: When energy is transferred from one system to another, the quantity of energy before transfer equals the quantity of energy after transfer.

NAEP Statement:
P8.12b: For example, as an object falls, its potential energy decreases as its speed, and consequently, its kinetic energy increases.

NAEP Statement:
P8.12c: While an object is falling, some of the object's kinetic energy is transferred to the medium through which it falls, setting the medium into motion and heating it.

NAEP Statement:
P8.8a: Objects and substances in motion have kinetic energy.

NAEP Statement:
P8.8b: For example, a moving baseball can break a window; water flowing down a stream moves pebbles and floating objects along with it.
Learning Objectives:

  • I will discover that the larger the mass of an object, and the higher the incline, the more energy is stored.

  • I will compute average distances. 

  • I will make predictions, record observations, and create a hypothesis. 
  Strategies, Preparations and Variations  
Phase:
During/Explore/Explain
Activity:

Students will observe and record the results of three different balls rolling down an inclined plane and hypothesize about the reason the distance the box changed.

  1. Pass out Student Sheet.

  2. Place masking tape to form a starting line and a line to help realign the box after it has been hit.

  3. Have students fill in the prediction section of the Student Sheet.

  4. One member of the group will roll one ball at a time down the inclined plane starting with the smallest ball and ending with the largest ball.

  5. One member will measure the distance that ball moved the box and record on the Student Sheet. (Remind students to measure in centimeters.)

  6. One member will reset the box after it has been moved by the ball and retrieve the ball that was rolled.

  7. Repeat four times for each ball, then calculate the average distance.

  8. Students should complete the Student Sheet.

The class should come back to the whole group and the teacher should ask the following questions:

  1. Which ball had the most kinetic energy? Why?

  2. What are some examples of storing and using energy in our world? (See-saws, Dams, etc.)

  3. What factors affect the amount of work an object can do? (Height and Mass).

  4. What would happen if the smallest ball was released at twice the height of the largest ball?

  5. Demonstrate releasing the smallest ball at twice the height, while another student releases the largest ball is at the original level.

  6. Discuss the results of the teacher/student demonstration.

  7. Discuss how the law of conservation of energy was observed in this Learning Asset.
Assessment Strategies:

The teacher will assess student understanding by reviewing each student’s student sheet.

The teacher will also observe student conversations to check for understanding.

Advanced Preparation:

The teacher should gather the following materials to complete this learning asset:

  • Print Student Sheet

  • 3 balls of different sizes and weights

  • Inclined Plane

  • Meter stick

  • Cardboard Box

  • Masking Tape

  • Calculators

The teacher should set up inclined planes with platforms at the top so that balls can be rolled down the inclined plane for this Learning Asset.  Also, the teacher should place cardboard boxes at the bottom of an inclined plane.  
Variation Tips (optional):

The teacher may want to discuss the following questions prior to implementing the Learning Activity:

  1. If I place the balls on top of an inclined plane, would the balls have any type of energy? Why? Yes, the balls would have a type of energy. At rest, the ball will have potential energy (PE). When the balls are released down the inclined ramp, the potential energy changes to kinetic energy (KE).

  2. Which ball do you think will have the most potential energy?

The teacher may want to demonstrate how to roll the ball down the inclined plane and how to measure the distance the box was moved.

The teacher may gather materials and have students set up inclined planes and cardboard boxes.
Notes or Recommendations (optional):

  • Students should have prior knowledge of the definitions for work and mechanical energy.

  • Students should have prior knowledge of how to calculate average distance. 

  • Students should have prior knowledge of the law of conservation of energy.

  Keywords and Search Tags  
Keywords and Search Tags: average, hypothesis, kinetic energy, law of conservation, law of conservation of energy, marbles, potential energy, predictions