Lesson Plan Template: Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation

Teacher name Subject Grade Level Time duration Materials needed

Describe what you are going to need to have ready at hand for the lesson

Deet Lamade Physics 12th 60 minutes In Class Computers or tablets with the application Gravity Lab loaded. Virginia SOL PH5 The student will investigate and understand the interrelationships among mass, distance, force, and time through mathematical and experimental processes. Key concepts include a) Newtons laws of motion; b) gravitation; c) planetary motion;

Lesson Objective
The objective of the lesson is what students will be able to do as they leave your class. For this objective, use the Standards of Learning (SOL) to say what you want to focus on. You can find the SOLs at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/ look on the right of the screen for the subjects and go from there.

Purpose of the lesson This

connects with the lesson objective, but in this section of your lesson plan you will describe what you want students to be able to do in your own words. Be specific in this section. Why do the students need to learn it? What will they be able to do at the end of the lesson to show that learning has taken place?

Activity Describe what the learning

activity will be. Include: -Exactly what the teacher and students will be doing each step of the way. For example, at first, will the teacher be modeling something, or describing what they are doing. -Explain if the teacher be asking questions, holding a discussion? -Explain if the students will be working independently, in pairs,

The purpose of this lesson is to familiarize students with Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation and to show how it applies to planetary bodies. This is important, because conceptually, the gravitational attraction between masses, is not intuitive. Simply deriving equations and plugging in values to determine theoretical results doesnt allow the student to visual what is really happening. The lesson will use the free application Gravity Lab to animate the physical interactions between masses predicted by Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation. These interactions will be confirmed when compared to the known parameters of the sun, earth and moon. By the end of the lesson, the students will understand that the force between objects in a system is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. They will also model a mini solar system to better understand the interactions between our sun , moon and earth as predicted by Newton. Read aheads for this class will include research on Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation and the weights and distances between the Sun Moon and earth. The first 10-15 minutes of class will include an instructor review of the read aheads with the class. The weights and distances will also be reviewed for accuracy. The instructor will then provide a brief demonstration of Gravity Lab, including how to create bodies and establish initial parameters. Students will follow along working in groups of 3 on a laptop or tablet.

groups etc.

Assessment How will you as the

teacher check to see if the learning objectives have been met. The assessment must match the lesson objectives and the purpose of the lesson.

Over the next 30 minutes, the students will work independently (in groups of three) to use Newtons law to answer the following questions then confirm their answers using Gravity Lab. What happens to force between objects when the mass of one object in a binary system is a) doubled? b) increased ten-fold What happens to the force between 2 objects when the distance between them is a) doubled? B) Cut in half? Using the weights, distances, positions and initial velocities provided in class, build a 3 body planetary model of the earth moon and sun. What would you expect to happen to the earths orbit if the sun lost half its mass? What if the Moons mass doubled? The final 15 minutes of class will be a review of the answers to each of the questions posed above. Each member of the group should be prepare to address one of the three answers. As the students are working in groups to answer the questions, the instructor will assess the progress against the learning objectives. The final review, where groups will present and discuss their findings, will also confirm the students understanding.

If you choose to use this template, delete the instructional text and give it a title.