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You will need:

Notebook
Writing utensil

Do not log into computer

25 MIN

September 18, 2025

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Lesson 3.4: Reasoning About the Pod’s Motion

Force and Motion

Lesson purpose: for students to synthesize and apply what they have learned about equal and opposite forces and mass in collisions�

Please refer to this lesson’s Materials & Preparation section in the digital Teacher’s Guide or the print Teacher’s Guide for information about preparing to teach this lesson, including any applicable safety notes. Below are links to resources used in this lesson.�Force and Motion Investigation Notebook, pages 79–85

Force and Motion Glossary

Force and Motion Multi-Language Glossary

Force and Motion Modeling Tool activity: Pod Collision

Note: These materials are made available exclusively for use by students and teachers for whom the corresponding materials have been purchased or licensed from Amplify. Any alterations you make should only be shared within your own school or district. Any other distribution or reproduction of these materials is forbidden without written permission from Amplify.

AMPSCI-CSNA

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Warm-Up

5 MIN

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Activity 1

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Investigation Notebook pg 80

Activity 1

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

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Activity 1

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Let’s think back to the homework from the previous lesson.

Share how you finished the explanation to Sherman.

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Introducing the Reasoning Tool

8 MIN

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Activity 2

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Remember, you will be making a final report to the space agency. The report will provide a complete explanation of what happened to the pod during the seconds that communication was lost and after the collision.

Let’s review the parts of the report.

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Evidence and the process of reasoning are parts of developing scientific arguments that answer questions about the natural world.

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Reasoning is the process of explaining how evidence supports or refutes a claim.

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

To make convincing arguments, scientists must explain how particular evidence supports their claim. The Reasoning Tool will help you use reasoning like scientists do.

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

For now, we’ll focus on the first part of the argument:

What happened to the pod when communication was lost?

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

In the middle column, you will record your thinking about each piece of evidence and what it tells you about the pod.

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

The last column is for the claim you are supporting.

Remember, we already determined that Claim 2 was best supported by evidence.

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Now let’s discuss each piece of evidence and how it supports the claim.

You will fill in the Reasoning Tool as we discuss.

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Evidence A was helpful because it revealed that there must have been something different about the pod that caused it to move in the opposite direction.

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

We learned that mass affects how objects change velocity when a force is exerted.

Evidence B tells us that the mass of the pod was more than normal.

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Evidence A and B work together to support this claim. We know the force exerted on the pod was the same, but the mass of the pod was different.

Let’s fill in our ideas.

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Activity 2

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Investigation Notebook pg 81

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Reasoning About the Pod

12 MIN

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Activity 3

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Activity 3

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

You will use the Reasoning Tool to help you reason about the new evidence about the pod and the space station and how it can support one of the claims.

Let’s look back at the three claims we’ve been investigating as well as the new evidence we received from Dr. Gonzales.

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Activity 3

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Investigation Notebook pg 82

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Activity 3

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

After the collision, how does the pod's motion compare to the motion of the space station?

Claim 1: The pod is moving faster than the space station.�
Claim 2: The pod and the space station are moving at the same speed.�
Claim 3: The pod is moving more slowly than the space station.

What does the evidence show, and which claim does it best support?

How does the evidence also refute the other two claims?

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Modeling the Pod’s Collision

20 MIN

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Activity 4

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Activity 4

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

You will now create a diagram that helps explain what happened to the pod after the collision. It will help you write your final argument about the pod for Dr. Gonzales.

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Investigation Notebook pg 83

Activity 4

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

👉Teacher action:

Have students complete their models.
Circulate and provide assistance as needed.
Encourage students to add annotations to their models to explain their thinking, if necessary.
Remind students to press HAND IN in the Modeling Tool to see the screenshot of their completed models, if they are using devices.�

On-the-Fly Assessment 10: �Students’ Final Models of the Missing Seconds�Look for: Reviewing models is an opportunity to assess individual student understanding of science content from the Force and Motion unit, particularly Chapter 3 content about the forces in collisions and how they affect objects. Models should be of two different-sized objects that represent the pod and the space station.

To demonstrate understanding of Chapter 3 content, students should indicate the same size force arrow for each object, but in opposite directions. Note that it is not specified what size force arrow students should use, and it is possible for students to be consistent with their understanding about mass (from Chapter 2) by using any size force arrow.
To demonstrate understanding of Chapter 2 content, students should choose longer velocity tails for the smaller mass object, indicating a greater velocity change from the same force.
To demonstrate understanding of Chapter 1 content, the size of the velocity tails should be appropriate for the size of the force. For example, a student who selects a small force arrow should not use medium and large velocity tails, and a student who selects a large force arrow should not use small and medium velocity tails. Additionally, the force arrow on the smaller object should be opposite the direction of its motion from the “Before Force” panel, indicating understanding that the collision with the space station represents a force opposite the direction of motion.

A proficient student response can be found in Possible Responses.�Now what? If you notice that students have specific misunderstandings, you can return to the Open Explore mode of the Sim to address them.

Needs more support understanding Chapter 3 content: Demonstrate collisions between different-sized objects and use Analyze to compare the forces and changes in velocity.
Needs more support understanding Chapter 2 content: Use the Prepare Forces panel to exert the same size force on two stationary objects of different mass. Go to Analyze and compare the changes in velocity.
Needs more support understanding Chapter 1 content: Run a less massive moving object into a stationary object of greater mass and observe the direction of force and velocity change of the moving object.

You can follow up to provide additional support by asking students to make predictions by using hands-on objects while modeling the same scenarios as above. For Chapter 3 content, you could use two objects that are the same mass to observe that they change speed by the same amount.

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Activity 4

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Summarize your conclusions about the pod.

What happened to the pod after the collision?
How does your model illustrate what happened?

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Activity 4

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

You will write a convincing argument to Dr. Gonzales.

She is especially interested in understanding the cause-and-effect relationship between the thrusters and the pod and between the colliding objects and the change in their velocities.

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Activity 4

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Investigation Notebook pg 8

Let’s review the writing prompts.

You can refer to your completed Reasoning Tools and models for help with the explanations.

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Activity 4

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

There are suggested words and phrases that you can use to help you make a convincing argument.

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Homework

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Activity 5

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Activity 5

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

For this activity, you will write your final report to Dr. Gonzales explaining what happened to the pod during the seconds that communication was lost and after the collision.

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Activity 5

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Investigation Notebook pg 84

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Self-Assessment (Optional)

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Activity 6

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Activity 6

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

For this activity, you will have a chance to reflect on your learning so far.

Remember, these are the same questions you will revisit at the end of every chapter.

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Activity 6

Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

Investigation Notebook pg 85

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Force and Motion: Lesson 3.4

End of Lesson

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