Straw Rockets[AL1]

Grade/ Grade Band: 3-5 grade

th
Topic: Straw Rocket Lesson # __7__
in a series of
_7___ lessons

Brief Lesson Description: The mission is complete and we will need to get the crew
back to Earth.

Performance Expectation(s):
3-PS2-1 Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of
balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
3-PS2-2 Make observations and/or measure of an objects motion to provide
evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.

Specific Learning Outcomes: By investigating the best model design for a straw
rocket, students will be able to build and test a straw rocket and then test the
rocket to determine the best construction. Students will finish up the storyline
and complete the unit.

Lesson Level Narrative

Our mission is to get our crew launched into orbit from the surface of Mars[AL2]
. You will build the rocket on the surface of the planet to send the mission crew back
to Earth when they are done with their mission.
Science & Engineering
Practices:
Planning and carrying out
investigations to answer questions
or test solutions to problems:
Plan and conduct
and investigation
collaboratively to produce
data to serve as the basis
of evidence, using fair tests
in which variables are
controlled and the number
of trials considered
Make observations
and/or measurements to
produce data to serve as
the basis for evidence for
an explanation of a
phenomenon or test a
design solution.
Disciplinary Core Ideas: Crosscutting
PS2.A Forces and Motion Concepts:
Each force acts on one Patterns
particular object and has Patterns of
both strength and a direction. change can be
An object at rest typically has used to make
multiple forces acting on it, predictions
but they add to give zero net Cause and effect
force on the objects speed Cause and
or direction of motion. effect
Patterns of an objects relationships are
motion in various situations routinely
can be observed and identified
measured; when that past
motion exhibits a regular
pattern, future motion can be
predicted from it.

Possible Preconceptions/Misconceptions:
Students tend to call the active actions force but do not consider passive actions as
forces Gunstone, R., Watts, M. (1985). Force and motion. In Driver, R. (Ed.),
Children's ideas in science (pp. 85-104). Many students know that a force can cause an
object to move. A typical example of students sharing their understanding of forces is
that the source of motion comes from outside the object (for example, the soccer ball
moves because someone has kicked it). Students need activities to engage in that will
help them uncover the four sources of change in motion. Force can change an
objects speed and make an object move. Force can stop an object and change its
direction.

LESSON PLAN 5-E Model

Teacher: Student

ENGAGE (Rafeka) (approx. time ___ mins.): Opening Activity Access Prior
Learning / Stimulate Interest / Generate Questions: Rafeka
You already send your astronaut on Mars. You need to bring our astronaut back from the
mars. -How might an astronaut land safely on earth?
-Would you want to land on slowly or super fast?
-would your astronaut coming back to earth safely?
-Plays Video- https://youtu.be/CAM3kGOAkcc

Make sure you have a way to play the video for the elementary students. If not, you may want
to bring a picture or make a diagram based on students ideas. - Nancy
-What did you notice/learn in the video??
-What did NASA use to get the Rover down safely?
-Did NASA try to slow down the rover or did NASA let it have a free-fall straight to Mars??
-For todays lesson, we will be designing our own Toady you going to make a Soda-Straw
Rocket landing system/model that will safely bring your astronauts to the earth.
Rafeka, since the lesson is about building a smaller rocket to get the astronauts back to Earth
from Mars, the focus of your part of the lesson should just be talking about the rocket. You
should not go into other topics such as how we will land once we get to Earth or talk about
rovers in this lesson because we are not building a lander or a rover. - Nancy

EXPLORE (Christine) (approx. time _5__ mins.): Lesson Description What

should the teachers ask and do? What will the students do? ( Christine )
We are almost at the end of our mission. To re-cap, we have launched, landed
and built our rovers to explore the surface of Mars to find if there is evidence of life
or if life can be sustained here.We have done different experiments with sand that
had sugar, yeast, and bicarbonate. We took soil samples to see if it also contained
evidence of life, no matter how microscopic. So today, we will be making rockets to
take us back to Earth after our mission is completed. We have very minimal resources
to build our rockets, so please keep in mind these things: (1) we need fuel; (2) a
vehicle to get us back to Earth (safely); (3) able to carry back all our samples, plus the
Astronauts. Recall what you did on our very first project of launching our rockets and
try to apply those methods to designing your rockets to take us home.

Excellent, Christine. I really like the way you outline the challenges of getting a rocket
back to Earth from Mars. - Nancy

Questions:
-What would you need to get your rocket to lift-off? Other than fuel? (Remember from
our first project).
-What type of design do you think would help to get your rocket off the surface
quickly, but safely? And finally:
-What must we do to keep our astronauts and all our Martian samples safe and
secure?
Just a few reminders, that Mars atmosphere is much thinner than Earths and the
gravity is less than ours. Try to keep all of this in mind when you are designing
your rocket.
Now, Kabir will Explain what you will be doing with the materials and the type of
rocket
you will be building.

Vocabulary:
Force: strength or energy exerted
Drag: something that impedes motion, action or advancement
Air pressure: pressure exerted by air, compression
Fins: airfoil appendage attached to an airplane for directional stability.
Angle: direction from which someone or something is approached.
Nose cone: a protective cone constituting the forward end of an aerospace
vehicle.
Gravity: physical force that is responsible for interactions which occur because of
mass between particles.

Very thorough planning. Thank you for thinking through and writing your portion so
carefully. -Nancy

EXPLAIN (Kabir) (approx. time ___ mins.): Concepts Explained and Vocabulary
Defined:

Vocabulary
ELABORATE (approx. time 5ish mins.)(Jenna): Applications and Extensions:
I will mainly be asking about the construction of the students straw rockets:
-How did your launches go for the first test? How about the second launch?
-What did your model look like??
->Was is short? Was it longer? Did it have fins?
-Did you tightly roll your paper or was it loosely rolled?
-Did your changes to the rocket make the launches better or worse? Why?

Good. Take advantage of opportunities that may arise to ask open-ended follow-up
questions. -Nancy

EVALUATE (Katty) (approx. time __5_ mins.):

Formative Monitoring (Questioning / Discussion):
I would ask the students to share their ideas
I will ask the students what else they could have done in order for their rocket to be
more successful.
What ended up working for your rocket, and what didnt work

Summative Assessment (Quiz / Project / Report):

is needed.
Katty, How will you determine if students met the performance expectations and
learning outcomes (see sections near top of this lesson plan) of this activity? Think
about it and add something here. - Nancy

Elaborate Further / Reflect/ Enrichment:

N/A