Things you'll need to decide on as you plan: Gravity and Space

Bringing together two sets of constraints

Focusing on the learners:

Distinguishing–eliciting–connecting. How to:

• emphasise that the pull of gravity depends on the environment
• keep separate the effects of atmosphere and the pull of gravity
• establish gravity as a universal force, occurring everywhere
• establish gravity as a universal force, acting on stationary and moving objects
• use the term force of gravity consistently
• connect interactions on this Earth with those occurring elsewhere in the universe

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:

• keep force and energy separate
• explicitly model the action of gravity as a force exerted by the environment
• introduce a variety of contexts to explore how the pull of gravity varies
• draw the force of gravity acting on objects
• describe the variation in the force of gravity with separation
• account for the variation in the magnitude of the force of gravity
• use the idea of a field
• separate the force of gravity acting on an object from the mass of the object
• account for objects with different masses falling at the same rate
• communicate an accurate understanding of mass
• provide a coherent account of the experience of weightlessness

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.