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Grade 4. In Unit 4.1: Energy Transfer: Collisions, students work to answer the Unit Driving Question: "Why does an object's motion change?"

What sports and games do you like to play? What objects move in those games? How do they change motion? In this unit, students experience and observe what happens to a soccer ball as they pass it back and forth to a partner at different distances and then explore other games. The unit supports students in developing foundational ideas about energy, its relationship to changes in motion and shape, and to find evidence that energy has been transferred between two objects when they collide. Through a series of investigations, students understand that contact forces between two colliding objects (e.g., a foot and a soccer ball or a ball and a surface) transfer energy from one object to the other, and that increasingly bigger kicks (stronger forces) cause the ball to travel farther and with more speed. Students also investigate how energy transfer occurs when a ball or other moving object slows down as it transfers energy to the surface it is moving on, and how energy transfers as sound and/or heat to the surroundings in addition to changing motion and shape.

This 1-Class Unit Kit comes with basic teacher access to instructional materials on CarolinaScienceOnline.com, plus the materials needed for a teacher to teach 1 class of 32 students per day.

Building Toward the Next Generation Science Standards
Performance Expectations (PEs)

4-PS3-1: Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
4-PS3-3: Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide. (Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the change in the energy due to the change in speed, not on the forces, as objects interact.)

Focal Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs)

Asking Questions and Defining Problems
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

Focal Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs)

PS3.A: Definitions of Energy
PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer
PS3.C: Relationship Between Energy and Forces

Focal Crosscutting Concepts

Patterns
Cause and Effect
Energy and Matter

*All enhancements to materials and instruction for this Carolina Certified Version of the unit are approved by OpenSciEd® to preserve the integrity of the storyline and the instructional model.

The Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.