Subject: What is motion?

Supplementary material for use in lessons in the group of natural sciences (nature, biology, chemistry, geography, physics), additional classes, science clubs. It can serve as a resource for expanding knowledge, preparing students for science competitions.

Author: Zyta Sendecka

Target group

7th grade student of elementary school (physics)

Core curriculum

7th grade – physics

II. Motion and forces Student:

1) describes and indicates examples of motion relativity;

2) distinguishes between the concepts of path and distance;

3) converts time units (seconds, minutes, hours).

Lesson objective

Students explain what a motion is and name the units of distance.

The criteria for success

• you will explain what the motion consists in;

• you will define the concepts of distance and time in relation to motion;

• you will name the metric units of distance and time.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• mathematical competence and basis competences in science and technology; 

• digital competence;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Methods/forms of work

Working with the text, a map of concepts.

Individual activity and frontal activity.

Teaching aids

1. abstract;

2. tablets/computers;

3. interactive whiteboard or traditional blackboard;

4. cards with terms;

5. A4 sheets;

6. various measures: metal, wooden, paper and fabric ones (at least 1 m long);

7. grey paper;

8. felt‑tip pens.

Lesson plan overview

Introduction

1. The teacher plays the film presenting the bodies motion. The teacher asks the students to give the film a title adequate to its content.

2. The teacher specifies the subject, lesson objective in a language the student understands, and the criteria for success.

Realization

1. The teacher asks the students to read the abstract.

2. The teacher distributes to the students the sets of cards with the following concepts:

• motion;

• movement;

• time;

• distance;

• second;

• minute;

• hour;

• millimetre;

• centimetre;

• metre;

• kilometre.

Students create maps of concepts illustrating relationships between the concepts and terms.

3. The students presents their maps of concepts on the board and compare them. Working together, they create the sets of alike maps. They discuss the reasons for the discrepancies between the maps.

4. Students do interactive exercise no. 1 and interactive exercise no. 2 in the form of an individual activity.

5. The teacher selects the number of students equal to the number of the measures. Each student is to measure a distance of 1 m (from a designated point) on a sheet of grey paper. The students formulate their observations regarding differences in measurements.

6. The teacher presents the history of the prototype metre to the students.

Summary

The students fulfil instruction no. 2, in writing.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

What is motion?

When we go by bus and see the landscape change outside the window, we know that we are moving. Motion can be described as movement from one place to another. If we want to talk about our motion, we have to determine how far we have moved and how much time it took us to do so. The length of a path from one place to another is called a distance. The basic distance unit is a metre. In everyday life we use also a multiple of a meter (kilometre) or a part of it (centimetre, millimetre). Such a distance measurement system is called metric.

The distance is done at a specified time. It is measured from the moment when the motion started until the moment it ended.

• Motion is a movement of any object relative to another object.