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45min
Grades: 5
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Why Does an Apple Fall?

PHYSICAL SCIENCES

Get curious

8 min
Video/ Slide show (8 min)

Watch a short film about astronauts living in a space station and talk about the ways their life is different from life on Earth.

Clicking play will redirect you to YouTube website.
Ask the students:

What would it be like if life on Earth was the same as life on a Space Station?

What things would we not be able to do?

What things would we be able to do?

Try to ensure a dynamic, lively conversation. The point is for the students to come up with as many ideas as possible without judging whether any idea is bad or not.

Get going

10 min
Experiment (10 min)

The students determine the direction of movement of objects on Earth – downward.

Ask the students: In what direction do objects move when released from a space station, and in what direction do objects move when released on Earth?
Instructions
Worksheets
5 min
Conclusions (5 min)

The students mark on their worksheets the direction in which objects are pulled, i.e. toward the center of the planet.


Instructions
Worksheet
6 min
Discussion (6 min)

Talk about the factors that influence this force of attraction (gravitational pull).

Ask the students: why do you think objects and people move differently on earth to the way they do on a space ship? 


Instructions
Get ready for Qs
6 min
Video/ Slide show (6 min)

The students watch a film and draw conclusions on how gravitational force is determined by the mass of a body.

The film shows an astronaut “jumping” on the surface of the Moon. 

The most important fragment: 1:46-2:00.

Clicking play will redirect you to YouTube website.
Instructions
Get ready for Qs
10 min
Analyzing (10 min)

The students use an online calculator to calculate their weight on other planets.

Instructions
Get ready for Qs

Get practicing

Video/ Slide show

The students watch a film showing an experiment conducted on the Moon and draw conclusions on why a feather and a hammer fall at the same speed on the Moon.

Clicking play will redirect you to YouTube website.

Get ready


Get Going


Experiment: In what direction do objects fall on Earth?

Conclusions: Direction of gravitational pull for objects


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Life Skills:

  • Critical thinking and drawing conclusion

Authors

Author: Przemysław Michalski
Methodology: Marlena Mazur-Rudnicka, Inga Katsevych
Translation: Jason Lowther
Producer: Anna Grabara

Source

This lesson plan is a modified version of one created by the Children’s University Foundation under the CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Photo Apple by Nick Amoscato published on flickr under the CC-BY 2.0 license.



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Why Does an Apple Fall?
The students learn how gravity works by conducting an experiment with a ball. They calculate their weight on different planets and watch films showing astronauts in a space station and jumping on the moon.

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