Students will investigate “How do forces impact motion?” by designing, building, testing, and improving a self-propelled car for a school open-house exhibition. They will use simple spring-scale measurements, create force diagrams, calculate net force and averages, apply Newton’s second law with correct units, and graph motion data to analyze acceleration and slope. Teams will define design criteria, compare solutions, and use test data and iteration organizers to optimize their cars, with one structured gallery walk for peer feedback using sticky notes. A public demonstration, evidence-based design explanation, ongoing reflections, and final self-assessment will document each student’s understanding and growth.

Students will explain how balanced and unbalanced forces affect motion using Newton’s first law, force diagrams, and positive and negative values to calculate net force. They will measure simple pushes and pulls with a spring scale in newtons and apply Newton’s second law, Fnet = ma, using correct units. Students will analyze repeated car-test data by calculating averages, graphing variables, and interpreting slope, then use evidence to improve a self-propelled car within defined criteria and constraints. They will complete a design-and-reflection organizer, participate in one structured sticky-note peer-feedback session, and publicly explain how their final car demonstrates relationships among force, mass, acceleration, interactions, and energy.

Teams will design and build a safe, self-propelled car that meets shared distance, load, and material constraints. Students will maintain an engineering organizer containing simple spring-scale force readings, labeled force diagrams, signed net-force calculations, Fnet = ma calculations with correct units, averaged trial data, graphs and slopes, design revisions, and reflections. After the first prototype test, teams will participate in one structured sticky-note feedback session and use the feedback to plan improvements. At the open house, teams will present their optimized car, conduct a live test run, and display an evidence board showing how balanced and unbalanced forces affected its motion.

Launch with a “Mystery Car Challenge”: teams observe two self-propelled cars with different masses race, predict their motion, and then measure each car’s force, travel time, and distance. Students post sticky-note notices and wonders, sketch initial force diagrams, and propose why the cars accelerated differently. Reveal the four-week mission: design, test, and improve a self-propelled car and evidence-based display for the school open house that answers, “How do forces impact motion?” An invited math or engineering teacher can introduce authentic design constraints such as size, materials, safety, and minimum travel distance.

Host a “Forces in Motion Auto Show” during the school open house, where teams demonstrate their self-propelled cars on a marked, safety-bounded test track. Each team displays its car, force diagrams, averaged trial data, graphs with slope calculations, and a Newton’s second-law analysis using correct units; force measurement can be represented by one simple spring-scale reading. Include one structured gallery walk in which peers leave sticky notes stating one strength and one question about each team’s design or evidence. Teams then give brief presentations explaining how testing, reflection, and that peer feedback shaped their final design.