Newton meets AI
View Sequence overviewStudents will:
- make a series of observations of examples of Newton’s first law.
- use previous observations to make a hypothesis for new examples of Newton’s first law.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
- write a series of hypotheses related to examples of Newton’s first law.
- draw conclusions as a result of comparing examples of Newton’s first law.
In this lesson, assessment is formative.
Feedback might focus on:
- students' use of examples to explain Newton’s first law of motion.
- students’ ability to identify the key factors that contribute to their science knowledge and practices being adopted as they learn to drive.
- students’ ability to develop hypotheses to test relationships and develop explanatory models.
Whole class
Newton meets AI Resource PowerPoint
Videos:
- Forces and motion: the physics of car crashes (2:40)
- Newton’s law of inertia (0:10)
- Newton’s first law demo (0:05)
- Will I fall? Newton’s first law (0:34)
- Optional: STEMonstrations: Newton’s first law of motion (4:19)
Each group
50g weight
A4 paper cut in half longways
Each student
Individual student notebook
Newton’s first law Resource sheet
Lesson
Re-orient
Review Newton’s second law of motion which states that the amount of force needed to accelerate is dependent on the mass ($F=ma$). Relate this to the force needed to accelerate a car full of passengers compared to a car containing only a driver.
Discuss how the amount of stopping force from the brakes does not change if the car is loaded with passengers or not. If the force and the mass cannot change, this means the negative acceleration will be less (it will take longer for the car to come to a stop).
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkIdentifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. It allows students to explore what they know and how they know it. During the Inquire phase of the LIA Framework, the Question routine allows for past activities to be reviewed and to set the scene for the investigation that students will undertake. The use of effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content, open them to exploration and link to their current interests and science capital.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to spend some time considering the mindset of students at the start of each Inquire phase. What do you want students to be thinking about, what do they already know and what is the best way for them to approach the task? What might tap into their curiosity?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkSudden stop
Discuss how the brakes increase the friction between tyres and the road, causing the car to stop.
(Slide 59) Pose the question: What happens to the driver and passengers when the car stops suddenly?
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkThe Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkNewton’s first law
Provide students with a copy of Newton’s first law Resource sheet. Explain that you will be watching some short videos that explore what happens when objects start or stop moving.
Introduce the first video of a car crash involving test dummies without seatbelts. Some students may find watching the test crash stressful—discuss different options for these students so they are included in the learning, e.g. turning away from the screen or leaving the room and having friends describe what happened.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Write a hypothesis about what will happen to the dummies during the crash.
Show 0:15 to 0:41 of Forces and motion: the physics of car crashes (2:40) without sound.
(Slide 60) Draw students’ attention to the way the dummies in the car keep moving when the car crashes.
- What did you notice about the motion of the crash test dummies during and after the crash?
- What stopped the car?
- What stopped the crash test dummies?
- Why do the dummies continue moving forward even after the car has stopped suddenly?
- How does the seatbelt change the outcome for the dummies, based on what you saw?
Play the clip again so that students can see how the dummies keep moving forward until stopped by the windscreen or the steering wheel.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Write observations about what happened to the dummies during the crash.
Introduce students to the idea that objects in motion keep moving until something stops them.
Ask: What would happen if a person jumped up and down on a moving trampoline?
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Write a hypothesis about what will happen when a person jumps on a moving trampoline.
Show Newton’s law of inertia (0:10).
(Slide 61) Examine the up/down motion first: the trampoline pushes the jumper up then gravitational forces slow their upwards movement and pull them back down. Then examine the forward movement. Discuss the observation that the person is moving forward before they jump. This forward movement is constant and does not change when they jump.
- How fast were the person, the car, and the trampoline moving before they jumped?
- Watching just the forward motion of the person on the trampoline, did their speed forward change? How do you know?
- The take-off position and landing position on the trampoline were the same.
- If you were watching from the car, would the person’s forward motion change?
- No.
- What would happen to the person if the car started accelerating while they were in the air?
- The person in the air would not change their speed. The car and the trampoline would move faster, and the person might miss the trampoline when they landed.
- What if the car pulling the trampoline slowed down while the person was in the air?
- The friction between the ground and the trampoline would cause it to slow down. The person in the air would not slow down and might land in front of the trampoline.
- How is this video similar to the previous video?
- Both showed that an object in motion stays in motion unless something stops it.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Write down your observations.
Ask: What would happen if a person on a moving ute threw a ball in the air?
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Write a hypothesis about what will happen when a person on a moving ute throws a ball in the air.
Show Newton’s first law demo (0:05).
(Slide 62) Discuss the observation that the ball continued moving forward when it was thrown straight up in the air.
- How could you describe the forward motion of the ball, person, and ute at the start of the video?
- They were all moving at a constant speed.
- What happened to the ball when it was thrown in the air?
- It kept moving forward at the same speed.
- Were there any forces keeping the ball moving forward?
- No.
- Why did the ball keep moving forward when it was thrown in the air?
- An object in motion stays moving at the same speed until something stops it.
- What would happen if it were a windy day?
- The wind would be an extra force acting on the ball and possibly changing its motion.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Write down your observations.
Discuss how all three videos showed that an object in motion stayed in motion until something stopped it.
Pose the question: What about things that are not moving? What happens when something is at rest? How could their motion change?
Introduce Will I fall? Newton’s first law (0:34), a video of a person wearing roller blades on a trolley platform.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Write a hypothesis about what will happen to a person on roller blades when the trolley starts moving.
Show Will I fall? Newton’s first law (0:34).
(Slide 63) Discuss the observation that the person stays in the same (at rest) position when the trolley starts moving. Compare this to standing on a bus or train when it starts moving. When a train pulls out of a station, passengers feel like they are falling back. Emphasise that passengers are actually staying ‘at rest’ until a force (the friction between their shoes and the train floor) accelerates them with the train.
- What did you notice about the person’s position when the trolley started moving?
- The person stayed in the same position.
- Why did the person seem to stay still while the trolley moved forward underneath them?
- Because the wheels of the roller blades were free to move, there was no force to make the person move.
- Have you ever stood on a bus or train when it suddenly started moving? What happened to your body?
- When the bus/train starts moving, the people on the bus/train stay still and it feels like the bus/train is moving out from under them.
- Why do you think you feel like the vehicle is moving forward without you when a vehicle starts moving?
- Your body stays at rest until the friction of the seat or shoes starts you moving.
- What helps you stay in place on a moving bus or train (e.g. shoes, friction, handrails)? How is that different from wearing roller blades?
- What would happen if the person on roller skates grabbed onto a handle or railing? How would their motion change? How would you explain that?
- The friction between the handle and the person hanging on to pull them forward.
- How does this video similar to the other videos?
- The body at rest/moving, stays at rest/moving until an unbalanced force changes it.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Write an observation about what happened to a person on roller blades when the trolley started moving.
Challenge students to do their own version of this experiment by placing a strip of A4 paper so that half the length is hanging off the table. Place the 50 g weight on the paper.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Write a hypothesis about what will happen when the paper is quickly pulled out from under the weight.
Allow students time to complete the activity.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Write observations about what happened when the paper was quickly pulled out from under the weight.
Newton’s first law
An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force.
Newton’s first law states that ‘an object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force’. This means that objects resist changing their motion (at rest or moving) unless an external force acts on them.
A useful example of this is driving in a car that's moving at a constant speed on a smooth, straight highway. You're not speeding up, slowing down, or turning—just cruising steadily.
According to Newton’s first law, the car would keep moving like this forever unless something changed it. In real life, things like friction from the road, air resistance, or pressing the brakes eventually slow the car down. But if you could remove all those forces (in the vacuum of space), the car would keep moving at the same speed and direction forever.
On Earth, inertia suggests that you don’t need to keep pressing the accelerator to make it move at a constant speed—you only need to overcome friction and air resistance.
Students may have the alternative conception that objects need a constant force to keep moving. For example, when a bowling ball is thrown in an alley, students may assume that a force keeps it moving forward once it leaves the hand. Instead, Newton’s first law tells us that the ball will keep moving until air resistance and friction slow its motion.
Newton’s first law states that ‘an object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force’. This means that objects resist changing their motion (at rest or moving) unless an external force acts on them.
A useful example of this is driving in a car that's moving at a constant speed on a smooth, straight highway. You're not speeding up, slowing down, or turning—just cruising steadily.
According to Newton’s first law, the car would keep moving like this forever unless something changed it. In real life, things like friction from the road, air resistance, or pressing the brakes eventually slow the car down. But if you could remove all those forces (in the vacuum of space), the car would keep moving at the same speed and direction forever.
On Earth, inertia suggests that you don’t need to keep pressing the accelerator to make it move at a constant speed—you only need to overcome friction and air resistance.
Students may have the alternative conception that objects need a constant force to keep moving. For example, when a bowling ball is thrown in an alley, students may assume that a force keeps it moving forward once it leaves the hand. Instead, Newton’s first law tells us that the ball will keep moving until air resistance and friction slow its motion.
Formative feedback to build understanding
Formative assessment is the ongoing process of gathering and interpreting information about student learning.
Formative assessment is the ongoing process of gathering and interpreting information about student learning during lessons. This allows teaching to be adapted to support understanding of students’ current progress, the ability to correct alternative conceptions early, and to strengthen new learning before it becomes difficult to change.
The approach used in this lesson allows students to apply their understanding of Newton’s first law to new and slightly different situations. This allows students to examine the similarities and differences of each clip and provides an opportunity to refine their hypothesis with each new video. The potential discussion prompts allow students opportunities to reflect on their observations before developing the next hypothesis and observation.
Formative assessment is the ongoing process of gathering and interpreting information about student learning during lessons. This allows teaching to be adapted to support understanding of students’ current progress, the ability to correct alternative conceptions early, and to strengthen new learning before it becomes difficult to change.
The approach used in this lesson allows students to apply their understanding of Newton’s first law to new and slightly different situations. This allows students to examine the similarities and differences of each clip and provides an opportunity to refine their hypothesis with each new video. The potential discussion prompts allow students opportunities to reflect on their observations before developing the next hypothesis and observation.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkFollowing an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkConsensus discussion
(Slide 64) Discuss how the first set of videos showed that an object in constant motion stayed in constant motion until something stopped it.
- In the crash test dummy video, the dummies were moving at the same speed as the car. What caused them to stop moving when the car crashed?
- Now think about the person jumping on the moving trampoline. What was the same about their motion and the motion of the crash test dummies?
- What was different about the situation with the trampoline jumper compared to the crash test dummies?
- Why does the jumper continue to move forward even when they are in the air and not touching the trampoline?
- How is the motion of the trampoline jumper like a ball being thrown into the air?
- What makes the two situations different (think about direction, control, or how they start moving)?
- How does gravity affect both the jumper and the ball?
(Slide 65) Discuss how the video of the person on roller blades and the activity with the paper and the weight both showed that an object at rest will stay at rest until something moves it.
- What happened to the person on roller blades when the trolley started moving?
- What happened to the weight when the paper was quickly pulled out from under it?
- What do both demonstrations show about how objects behave when they are at rest?
- Why did the roller-blading person and the weight both stay in place at first, even though the surface beneath them moved?
- Can you think of other examples in daily life where something stays still until a force moves it?
- How might this understanding help you in real situations, like riding on a bus or carrying objects in a moving car?
(Slide 66) Discuss how all the videos and demonstrations illustrated Newton’s first law. Introduce Newton’s first law as ‘a body in motion remains in motion until an unbalanced force acts on it’ and the law of inertia as ‘a body at rest remains at rest until an unbalanced force acts on it’.
✎ STUDENT NOTES: Write the definition and an example of Newton’s first law.
Remind students of the first video of the test dummy in the simulated accident. Discuss why people should wear a seatbelt when a car is moving.
Pose the question: Why is wearing a seatbelt written into law?
Reflect on the lesson
You might invite students to:
- watch STEMonstrations: Newton’s first law of motion (4:19).
- plan an advertising campaign on the importance of wearing seatbelts.
- re-examine the intended learning goals for the lesson and consider how they were achieved.