INTRODUCTION

In physics, a force is any interaction on an object that will result in the movement of another object, i.e. is any interaction that will change the motion of an object (push or pull). Whenever there is an interaction between two objects, there is a force upon each one of them. A force only exists because of interaction.

A force magnitude and direction, making a vector quantity. A force is symbolized with the letter F, and it is measured in the SI unit of Newtons.

Newton’s second law describes that when a constant force acts of a mass, it causes the acceleration of it, meaning the change in its velocity, at a steady rate. Newton’s second law of motion in equation form is:

a=F_N  / m

The more familiar form of the equation is: F_N =m X a

This WebQuest can be used as part of a Physics course.

Table 1: Types of Forces

Figure 1: Newton’s second law of motion. Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/physics/chapter/4-3-newtons-second-law-of-motion-concept-of-a-system/

TASK

The aim of this WebQuest is to learn and understand the seven types of forces, providing students the essential knowledge for them to use in order to be able to solve everyday problems. By the end of this course, students will be able to understand what a force is and its seven types. Also, they will understand Newton’s second law of motion and its application to determine the weight of something.

PROCESS

Step 1: Complete this table with the different types of forces

Search the internet and YouTube to find videos explaining the different types of forces based on Table 1 of this web quest. Then identify 4 forces you have usually around you and complete the table below.

You may need to watch more than one video and more than once to answer the table’s questions.

Step 2: Impacts of forces

In this step, we will try to explore the impacts of a specific force on an object with small home experiments.

Complete the table by answering the questions.

Now try to fill in the above table with your own experiments!

RESOURCES

Types of Forces

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/newtlaws/Lesson-3/Newton-s-Second-Law

CONCLUSION

This WebQuest aims at understanding forces in physics and its seven types, and in the application of these forces to solve everyday problems.

Students are expected to develop their understanding of Newton’s laws of motion, emphasising the second law. It is a necessary and highly beneficial course that can be used later in life to solve everyday problems.

Evaluation of learning achievements

In this section we will not dive very deep into the underlying educational theories about evaluation and testing: there’s too much out there than we could possibly cover in this small project report.

Instead, we want to concentrate on procedures that enable both students/pupils and their teachers to establish if the learning goals of the Webquest were achieved and, if so, to what extent. We recommend teachers make use of a combined evaluation procedure, that consists of:

1. Statements by learners (after being asked to do so)
   • telling what they learned about the subject (knowledge-oriented self-evaluation): now (after going through the Webquest) I know that …
   • telling what he/she learned about herself/himself (formative evaluation, in this case, diagnostic self-evaluation): now (after going through the Webquest) I know about myself that I …
     This pair of basic statements add up to a so-called learner report, in which the pupil/student reflects on what the Webquest brought him/her in terms of acquired knowledge and new personal views and attitudes concerning the subject.

   For instance:

   • ‘I learned that in medieval times the hygiene of people was hardly a concern which helped to let epidemic diseases like the Plague cause so many casualties’ Or:
   • ‘I learned the facts and I know the earth is warming, but I cannot understand why people were so stupid to pollute the world and let it warm up so much.
   • ‘I learned from the information about diseases that this subject is more appealing to me than I would expect in advance: maybe I should consider a medical career’. Or:
     ‘The Webquests confirms what I thought already: I could not care less about the climate and global warming. In fact, I thought it was all a hoax and I still do!’

   This kind of assessment seems more subjective than it actually is: in his standard work on testing and evaluation (and much more), simply called Methodology (1974), Prof. A.D. de Groot described how consistent the student’s self-evaluations appeared to be: when asked again after 5 or 10 years, their evaluation would almost be the same. De Groot advised teachers to use the learner report as a start for joint evaluations, striving for consensus between teacher and student/pupil about the learning outcomes and their value for the learner, but also compared with the learning objectives as stated in the curriculum.

2. The learning achievements are visible in the output produced by the students: it is physical evidence: reports, answers to questions asked in the Webquest, presentations, and performance during presentations (preferably recorded). The teacher completes an evaluation grid stating clearly what the learning outcomes for the student/pupil are. The categories in the grid can be modified by the teacher to cover more precisely the content of a Webquest.

   >We advise teachers to use the grid to start a joint evaluation discussion, aiming at consensus or at least understanding between the teacher and the student/pupil about the learning outcomes: were they achieved (as planned in the curriculum and communicated before the Webquest started) and to what extent? To communicate the learning goals clearly before any learning activity starts, is a transparency requirement that is widely acknowledged in the educational community. The history of making learning objectives explicit goes back to the evaluation ‘Bible’ by Bloom, Hastings and Madaus: ‘Handbook on formative and summative evaluation of student learning’ (1971), a standard work that also served as inspiration for the earlier mentioned Prof. De Groot.

The procedure also applies when students/pupils have worked together on a Webquest. The teacher will ask questions about individual contributions: ‘What did you find? What part did you write? How did you find the illustrations? Who made  the final presentation?’

All the evidence (of learning efforts and outcomes plus joint evaluations) is preferably stored in the learning portfolio of the student, or in any other suitable storage system (folders with written or printed documents, online collection of files, etcetera ).

Changes in personal points of view and feelings are harder to value and here the consensus between teacher and student/pupil about experiences during the learning process provides essential insights.

The grid below gives an example of how the evaluation of the learning process and achievements can be shaped: what kind of reactions to the Webquest does the teacher expect and how valuable are they? Is the teacher capable to explain the value or score allocated to answers or presentations given by pupils? Does the pupil/student understand the evaluation outcomes, and does he/she agree? If an agreement (consensus is not possible, it is still the teacher who decides how to value the student’s work.

Please note that the text in the grid addresses the pupil/student directly: this is important and it is in fact a prerequisite for using such an evaluation grid: it is specifically meant to enable a discussion of learning results between teacher and student and not to communicate learning achievements of learners to others who had no direct role in the Webquest.

Evaluation Grid