Phizzi focus – forces
Published: 3 February 2021
The topic of forces is a fascinating area of the primary science curriculum with great opportunities to connect learning with history, design technology and mathematics.
We have produced a Phizzi focus guide which brings together lots of ideas, links and resources to help develop abstract ideas about forces across the curriculum to give young learners – at home or at school – time to embed the big ideas.
Phizzi focus also includes a recommended booklist from one of our partnership leads – Matt Crook – giving you lots of creative links to develop learning.
Our Phizzi focus on forces includes links to resources that can be used at home or in the classroom – although practical investigations might be harder in the current circumstances there are still activities that children can explore to help deepen their understanding of forces and apply their knowledge to real world situations.The topic of forces is one of the four main areas of the physics curriculum for KS2 and is part of the Ogden partnership CPD programme. The Trust has developed a range of forces resources that are freely available to support the topic.
“I am having to be very creative in finding ways for children to keep up their science enquiry at home,” says Amanda Poole, primary teacher and resources lead for the Trust. “There are some forces investigations and activities included on this Phizzi focus that children could easily carry out at home during lockdown.
“With our slippy shoes investigation, where children don’t have newton meters at home, for example, they can adapt methods to find other ways to measure, such as comparing shoes by changing the angle of the slope until the shoe slides.”
Why not ask your pupils to investigate how ideas about friction and gravity have changed over time with the Ogden research cards? The cards can be used as a resource for a research enquiry at home and children could report and share their findings through posters, chronological reports or use mobile phones and tablets at home to make videos or podcasts. They can even explore some of the games and practical activities we have created for the topic.
Forces resources from The Ogden Trust can br found on our resources page.
Making paper aeroplanes is a great challenge – how far can they get their planes to fly? Can they change anything to make them go further? Can they beat their brother/sister? Can they beat their classmates in a virtual competition? Or…. can they beat the teacher – why not post a film online and set the challenge! @ogdentrust. Our Phizzi practical forces and flight, could be shared to give support to parents in talking about the scientific ideas.
There are lots of other activities on our website that the children could try and some of them are perfectly suited for the home: heat shield testing; making a magnetic racing game… Our Phizzi forces problem solving activities bring science and maths together and include worksheets that you can easily send home for the children to complete.
Children will be able to find all sorts of objects around the home that they could use to explore forces – toys, balls, bicycles, skateboards or even their own bodies. Why not use this extra time at home to encourage them to be curious and explore? They could plan their own tests and find interesting ways to communicate their enquiries with you and the rest of their classmates.
