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Grade K. In 10 lessons over 13 class sessions, students explain a phenomenon and solve a problem related to the game of air hockey and explain a second phenomenon related to the game of miniature golf. Module includes a teacher guide, 1 Smithsonian Science Stories big book, 4 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 24 students to use 1 time.

Grade K. Module Highlights: In 10 lessons over 13 class sessions, students explain a phenomenon and solve a problem related to the game of air hockey and explain a second phenomenon related to the game of miniature golf. In lessons 1–3 and 5–6, students explain what happened to a hockey puck before it moved quickly into a goal. In lessons 4, 7, and 8, students solve the problem of designing a hockey game that can be played at home or at school. In lessons 9 and 10, the end-of-module science challenge, students explain the phenomenon of a golf ball changing its direction of motion inside a mini golf feature.

This module includes a teacher guide, 1 Smithsonian Science Stories big book, 4 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 24 students to use 1 time.

Student Readers Available HERE

Alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards*
Performance Expectations

• K-PS2-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.
• K-PS2-2: Analyze data to determine if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull.
• K-2-ETS1-3: Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS2.A: Forces and Motion

• Pushes and pulls can have different strengths and directions.
• Pushing or pulling on an object can change the speed or direction of its motion and can start or stop it.

PS2.B: Types of Interactions

• When objects touch or collide, they push on one another and can change motion.

PS3.C: Relationship between Energy and Forces**

• A bigger push or pull makes things speed up or slow down more quickly.

ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems**

• A situation that people want to change or create can be approached as a problem to be solved through engineering. Such problems may have many acceptable solutions.

ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution**

• Because there is always more than one possible solution to a problem, it is useful to compare and test designs.

**Indicates a DCI that is addressed in the module but not summatively assessed.

Science and Engineering Practices

• Developing and using models
• Constructing explanations

Crosscutting Concepts

• Cause and effect

Phenomena and Problems Storyline
Phenomenon: An air hockey puck moves quickly into a goal.
Students figure out: The hockey puck was pushed hard to cause it to move quickly. The puck may have collided with the side wall, which pushed on the puck and caused it to change direction and move into the goal.
Problem: Ada wants a hockey game that she can play at home or at school.
Students solve the problem: Students design and build a tabletop hockey game.
Lesson 1: Students use observations as evidence to explain that objects start moving when they are pushed or pulled.
Lesson 2: Students draw models to show how a push or a pull starts an object’s motion. They explain that the hockey puck was pushed before it went into the goal.
Lesson 3: Students use observations as evidence to explain that a bigger push or pull causes objects to move faster than a smaller push or pull. Students conclude that the puck was pushed hard to cause it to move fast.
Lesson 4: Students test three objects to identify which is best to push the ball hard and fast into a goal.
Lesson 5: Students observe the direction that the puck was moving when it went into the goal. Students observe how the direction of a push impacts the direction of an object’s motion. Students change the direction of a ball’s motion by pushing it in a new direction.
Lesson 6: Students figure out the direction the puck was pushed from to cause it to move into the goal and conclude that the puck may have collided with a wall. Students observe how a collision with a wall changes the direction of a ball’s motion. They explain that the puck may have collided with a wall, changed its direction of motion, and moved into the goal.
Lesson 7: Students use what they learned about collisions to figure out that their hockey game needs a wall around it. Students test six materials to identify which will allow a hockey ball to move toward the goal after a collision.
Lesson 8: Students design and build a hockey game that will keep the ball in the game and allow a goal to be scored after a collision with a side wall.
Science Challenge
Phenomenon: A golf ball moves into a mini golf feature and comes out of the mini golf feature moving in a different direction.
Students figure out: The ball collided with one or multiple objects inside the Mini Golf feature, causing the ball to change its direction of motion.
How they figure it out:
Lesson 9: Students share initial ideas and develop a 2D model of what they think is inside the Mini Golf feature. Students develop 3D models that they can test.
Lesson 10: Students test their 3D model and observe and hear about how their classmates’ 3D models worked. Using their observations as evidence, students explain that the ball collided with one or multiple objects inside the Mini Golf feature, causing the ball to change its direction of motion. Students develop revised 2D models of the Mini Golf feature.

*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.