Questions:
1. Which of the following best describes Earth's shape?
A. disk
B. circle
C. sphere
D. plane
2. Earth's gravity pulls an object toward its ____________.
3. Which model do you find most useful to explain gravity and its effects? Why?
-Tennis ball and rubber band?
-Styrofoam ball and toothpicks?
-Circle on paper with arrows?
4. Why are models helpful at explaining complex scientific concepts like gravity?
5. Do you think the moon is affected by Earth's gravitational pull? If so, why doesn't it fall down toward the Earth?
6. Why doesn't a bird or plane fall from the sky?
7. Does gravity ever stop working? Does any force ever cancel out gravity or reverse it? Explain.
8. Why is the lesson on gravity a good time to teach about craters?
A. disk
B. circle
C. sphere
D. plane
2. Earth's gravity pulls an object toward its ____________.
3. Which model do you find most useful to explain gravity and its effects? Why?
-Tennis ball and rubber band?
-Styrofoam ball and toothpicks?
-Circle on paper with arrows?
4. Why are models helpful at explaining complex scientific concepts like gravity?
5. Do you think the moon is affected by Earth's gravitational pull? If so, why doesn't it fall down toward the Earth?
6. Why doesn't a bird or plane fall from the sky?
7. Does gravity ever stop working? Does any force ever cancel out gravity or reverse it? Explain.
8. Why is the lesson on gravity a good time to teach about craters?
Answers:
1. sphere
2. core
3. At first I thought the styrofoam ball was the best choice, but after doing it at home I realized that the tennis ball and rubber band model best explains why gravity pulls toward the core. It's self explanatory because when you pull the rubber band that represents people and objects moving back toward the center of the Earth.
4. A model is helpful to demonstrate complex ideas by giving you a visual to help you understand.
5. I believe the reason that the moon doesn't fall toward Earth is that the moon stays rotating around the Earth's orbit so it better balanced.
6. Birds don't fall from the sky because when they push off the ground air glides under their wings and makes them drift upward to fly. Also they are very light so it is easier.
A plane has a motor that starts, then pushes the plane off the ground with amazing force. They also have wings like a bird to help push higher in the air and keep them balanced.
7. No, gravity never stops working. I believe some forces might cancel out gravity. For instance, the helium makes the balloon bloat up, not go down. The same for a hot air balloon. I think this is because there are forces that make gravity reverse or we couldn't do this.
8. Since we are learning about gravity, craters come off astroids and astroids fall to the Earth because of gravity's force. So this would be good because they connect with gravity.