Teacher sheet · Ages 10–11 · about 45–50 minutes
Gravity: the pull that holds the world together
Lesson page: echoesof.science/school/gravity/ages-10-11/ · Pupil worksheet: echoesof.science/school/gravity/ages-10-11/print/
Learning aims
- Everything with mass attracts everything else; the pull grows with mass and shrinks with distance.
- Mass stays the same; weight depends on the gravity where you are.
- Without air all objects fall equally fast; air resistance depends on shape and size.
- Plan and carry out a fair test with repeated measurements.
Lesson plan
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 5 min | Question: does a heavy ball fall faster than a light one? Let pupils vote. |
| 10 min | Read the text (screen or printed sheet). |
| 20 min | Parachute test in groups of 3: one drops, one times, one writes. |
| 5 min | Share averages on the board and compare. |
| 5 min | Quiz or the Mystery world game as a class. |
Materials for the experiment
- A thin plastic bag or tissue paper
- Thread or thin string, tape and scissors
- The same small weight for each parachute (for example 3 paper clips or a lump of modelling clay)
- A stopwatch (or a phone)
- A tape measure
Safety: Drop from standing height with arms raised, or let the teacher drop from a safe, stable spot. Never climb on chairs or tables. Take care with scissors.
Common misconceptions
| Pupils may think… | Actually… |
|---|---|
| Heavy things fall faster. | Only when air slows the light thing down. Without air they fall together (Stevin 1586, Apollo 15 in 1971). |
| There is no gravity in space. | At the space station gravity is still about 90%; astronauts float because they are falling around the Earth. |
| Weight and mass are the same. | Mass is the amount of matter; weight is the pull of gravity on it. |
Worksheet answers
- Mass is how much stuff something is made of and is the same everywhere; weight is how hard gravity pulls on it, which changes from world to world.
- About 5 kg (30 ÷ 6). The child's mass is still 30 kg; the scale shows less because the Moon pulls less.
- Usually the 30 cm one: the bigger canopy has more air resistance.
- They and the station are falling around the Earth together (free fall).
Quiz answers
- An astronaut flies to the Moon. What happens to her mass? It stays the same. Mass is how much stuff she is made of. Her weight changes, her mass does not.[1]
- On the Moon, you would weigh about… one sixth of your Earth weight. 1.6 m/s² on the Moon against 9.8 m/s² on Earth: about one sixth.[2]
- Without air, a bowling ball and a feather are dropped together. Which lands first? They land together. Without air resistance, everything falls with the same acceleration.[6][3]
- Why do astronauts float in the space station? They are falling around the Earth with the station. Gravity there is still almost 90% of what it is on the ground.[4]
- What mainly causes the ocean tides? The Moon's gravity. The Moon pulls on the oceans. The Sun helps a little.[5]
- In the parachute test, what must stay the same to make it fair? The weight and the drop height. Change only one thing at a time: here, the size.
Going further
Cut a small hole in the top of the biggest parachute. Does it fall more steadily? Why might real parachutes have a vent?
Sources used in this lesson
- [1] What Is Gravity? (NASA Space Place): reliability High
- [2] Planetary Fact Sheet (Metric) (NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive): reliability High
- [3] The Apollo 15 Hammer-Feather Drop (NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive): reliability High
- [4] What Is Microgravity? (NASA): reliability High
- [5] College Physics 2e, 6.5 Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation (OpenStax, Rice University): reliability High
- [6] University Physics Volume 1, 3.5 Free Fall (OpenStax, Rice University): reliability High
- [10] Galileo Galilei's and Simon Stevin's experiments (John Plaice (Substack essay)): reliability Medium
- [11] The Delft Tower Experiment (Amusing Planet (popular history site, 2024)): reliability Medium
Full list with links and a note on each source's reliability: echoesof.science/school/gravity/sources/
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