Science Y6 6E .

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Year 6 Unit 6E Lesson 1 Forces in Action

A Show of Force
A review of the topic of forces
Purpose of the lesson: to review the topic of forces. (This is a quick run-through, to reacquaint the
children with the subject, and it is not necessary to go into depth. Many of the points will be revisited
later in the unit.)
National Curriculum Links
• Sc4: 2b that objects are pulled downwards because of the gravitational attraction between them and the Earth;
• Sc4: 2c about friction, including air resistance, as a force that slows moving objects and may prevent objects from starting
to move;
• Sc4: 2d that when objects, e.g. a spring or a table, are pushed or pulled, an opposing pull or push can be felt;
• Sc4: 2e how to measure forces and identify the direction in which they act;
• BoS: 2a use appropriate scientific language and terms, including SI units of measurement, e.g. metre, newton, to
communicate ideas and explain … phenomena and processes.

Learning objectives Activity 1 Introductory discussion: force

Children learn/revise:
• that pushes and pulls are
examples of forces;
• that forces are needed to start
and stop things and to change
their speed and/or direction;
• that friction, including air
resistance, is a measure of force;
• that forces have direction and
that they can be measured using
a forcemeter;
• that the standard unit for
measuring force is the newton.
• Ask the class what they understand by the word ‘force’. Consider a number of
different contexts in which it is used, and collect and write some common
synonyms (or near synonyms) on the board: strength, power, etc.
• Note that ‘force’ is one of many words that have a special meaning when they are
used in science, and ask for some examples of such use. Establish, for instance, that
when ‘force’ is used in the sense of a push or a pull, it is being used scientifically.
Hand out copies (or project an OHT) of Resource Sheet 1.1 The Use of 'Force'.
Discuss each of the contexts given and ask the class which they think are scientific.
(Some are obviously scientific; some are clearly non-scientific; some are open to
debate.) Also ask, and discuss, whether all the meanings or uses (scientific and
non-scientific) have something in common. (Do they all involve some kind of
power or strength? Are they all to do with making something happen or change?)

Learning outcomes Activity 2 A demonstration of forces

Children:
• revisit work on forces from • Set up the model seesaw using a ruler and a fulcrum made of some strong tubing
previous years/units. (e.g. length of plastic pipe), or thick piece of dowel.

Vocabulary
force, exert, apply, impart, resist,
resistance, gravity, weight, mass,
friction, newton (N), standard (SI)
unit, forcemeter, compress, extend,
attract, repel
Resources & preparation
Each group will need one or more
of the following:
• springs (various); rubber bands
(various); magnets;
• copies and/or OHT of Resource
Sheet 1.1;
• class set of copies of Resource
Sheet 1.2.
For single demonstration:
• a strong ruler or flat strip of
wood, and a thick piece of dowel
or tubing to make a see-saw
arrangement (see text of
Activity 2);
• a yoghurt pot with means of
suspending it from an elastic
band;
• Position the fulcrum close to one end of the ruler and place a rolled-up ball of
paper on the other, longer end. Bang your fist down on the short end of the ruler
to launch the paper ball into the air. Ask the children: What made the ball of paper
travel up into the air? Conclude that the downward push on the ruler resulted in
an upward push on the paper, and that these forces cause the paper to change
from being still to being on the move. Remind the class that forces of some kind
are always needed to start things moving, to stop them, or to change the direction
in which they move.
• Illustrate this by repeating the demonstration, asking one volunteer to catch the
paper ball while it is in the air and another to knock it off course. Note that both
these require some additional force to be applied to the paper for the changes to
take place.
• Ask:
• Why does the paper not keep going when I hit it up into the air?
• Why does it slow down, stop and start falling instead?
• The children should be able to tell you that its weight and/or that the force of
gravity pulls it down. Try to get them to expand the explanation to include the
fact that more than one force is working on the paper ball: the upward force of the
struck ruler and the downward pull of gravity. At first the upward push is stronger
than the downward pull, so the ball goes up, but gravity wins in the end.
• Next hold the ball in your hand and ask: Why does the ball not fall now? Agree
that your hand is pushing it up, stopping it from falling. To put it another way the

298 LCP Science Resource Files KS2 © Copyright 2001 Language Centre Publications Ltd. Copies may be made for use within the purchasing institution only.
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Year 6 Unit 6E Lesson 1
• a shoebox or similar;
• clockwork devices (Activity 4);
• objects to weight in the pot and
the shoebox, e.g. pebbles,
marbles, sand.
SAFETY
Warn the children not to extend
elastic bands too far, as they can
snap or slip with the risk of eye-
damage. If in doubt, issue eye
protection.
Differentiation
• Some children will observe
and/or recall that forces have
different directions and
strengths, and will measure
these using standard and non-
standard measures.
• More able children should be
able to identify different kinds of
force: weight, magnetic force,
elastic force, etc. They will
understand/recall that forces
meet with resistance, e.g. when
an elastic band is stretched, it
pulls back in the opposite
direction. They will begin to
understand that weight is a
force which attracts objects
towards the earth and makes
them feel heavy; and that weight
can be used as a means of
measuring and comparing forces.
Additional
activities/homework
• Hand out copies of Resource
Sheet 1.2 Pullalong and ask the
children to discuss it, explaining
what is going on in the picture.
They can then take the sheet
home and annotate it for
homework.
Notes
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Forces in Action
Activity 2 A demonstration of forces (cont.)
upward force of your muscles is resisting the force of gravity, even when the ball
is held still. Drop it onto the table and ask if the table is now resisting the force of
gravity. (Yes.) Conclude that forces are at work everywhere: making things move;
slowing them down; speeding them up; keeping them still.
Activity 3 More forces
• Tell the class that you are going to repeat the demonstration using an opened-out
sheet of paper instead of the screwed-up ball, and ask them to predict what will
happen. Emphasise that it is the same paper with the same mass (weight): you
could even weigh the screwed-up ball and the open sheet on digital scales to put
this beyond question. Then strike the short end of the ruler as you did before
• The children will correctly predict that the sheet of paper goes hardly any
distance, but ask them to explain this in terms of forces. Lead them to recall that air
resistance slows down moving objects, and that it slows down spread-out shapes
more than compact or streamlined ones.
• Establish that air resistance is a form of a force known as friction, and that friction
slows moving objects down and may stop them moving altogether. Place the
shoebox on a table and lift one end of the table until the box begins to slide.
Agree that the force of gravity makes the box move down the slope, but that
friction between the box and the tabletop slows it down. Weight the box with
something heavy and repeat, noting that the table needs to be lifted higher
before the box moves. Ask the children to explain this, and conclude that friction
increases because of the added weight. (More generally, friction increases in
proportion to the forces pressing the surfaces together – in this case weight.)
• Note that friction can be reduced in various ways. Place the two lengths of dowel,
or round pencils under the weighted shoebox and note that very little slope is
required before it starts to roll. Conclude that rolling objects encounter much less
frictional force than sliding objects.
Activity 4 Springs, elastic bands, magnets
• Give out the magnets, elastic bands and springs to each group and ask them to
experiment with them, identifying observable forces: pushes and pulls. Recall that
springs resist by pushing back when they are compressed; springs and elastic
bands pull back when stretched; magnets attract and repel (depending on the
way they are lined up).
• Show the clockwork device(s) if you have been able to obtain any, and/or hand
them round. Establish that clockwork operates by ‘winding up’ (tightening,
compressing) a spring which then unwinds when released. The force with which it
unwinds drives the machine. Many small toys and models use twisted elastic
bands to make them move as they unwind.
Activity 5 Direction and strength
• Hang the weighted yoghurt pot on an elastic band, and ask the children to
describe the forces that are operating. Agree that the weight of the pot is a
downward force, the pull of the elastic band is an upward force. Add more weight
(e.g. more marbles) to the yoghurt pot and observe what happens to the elastic
band. (It lengthens.) Ask why it lengthens and what effect this has. (The downward
force is greater, so the elastic stretches further. As it extends it exerts greater
upward force, so it supports the extra weight.)
• Hook the elastic band to the weighted shoebox and use it to pull the box along.
Note that it stretches some distance before the box moves. Show that your hand is
pulling in one direction, the force of friction is resisting in the other direction.
When the force of the stretched elastic is strong enough to overcome the force of
friction, the box will move.
• From these demonstrations note that:
• 1) forces have direction: up, down, along, towards, away from, etc.;
• 2) forces have strength which can be compared or described, e.g. the force
needed to support a certain weight, or the force needed to drag a boxfull of
a certain amount of sand, etc.
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Year 6 Unit 6E Lesson 1 Forces in Action

Notes Activity 6 Measuring forces

• Finally ask the class how forces can be measured in a more precise and standard
way. (The ‘force needed to drag a box of sand’ or ‘…lift a pot of marbles’ is not very
useful to us because these amounts vary.)
• Recall that forces are generally measured in newtons (N), and show the children
forcemeters marked in newtons. Ask them to pull the spring out to show readings
of e.g. 2 N, 5 N, 9 N, and to feel the difference in the force required for each reading.
Ask them to explain how the forcemeter works. (The further you stretch the spring
inside, the more force it takes to do this.)

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Sc LCP Science Resource Files KS2 © Copyright 2001 Language Centre Publications Ltd. Copies may be made for use within the purchasing institution only.