Things you'll need to decide on as you plan: Forces - a New Way of Seeing

Bringing together two sets of constraints

Focusing on the learners:

Distinguishing–eliciting–connecting. How to:

• draw on learners experience of, and ideas about, their own actions and relate these to force
• explore and expose children's ideas about forces
• draw out children's everyday ideas about motion and the forces required
• introduce children to a new way of seeing—with forces

Teacher Tip: These are all related to findings about children's ideas from research. The teaching activities will provide some suggestions. So will colleagues, near and far.

Focusing on the physics:

Representing–noticing–recording. How to:

• connect interactions between objects with the idea of a force
• represent objects simply, particularly extended objects
• adopt consistent conventions about where the arrows are drawn
• develop a consistent graphical language for your arrows, representing a force ontology

Teacher Tip: Connecting what is experienced with what is written and drawn is essential to making sense of the connections between the theoretical world of physics and the lived-in world of the children. Don't forget to exemplify this action.