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OpenSciEd Unit 8.1 + Computer Science: Why do things sometimes get damaged when they hit each other? Student Edition
Author(s): NATIONAL CENTER FOR
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2025
Pages: 98
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OpenSciEd Middle School science program addresses all middle school NGSS standards. This comprehensive science curriculum empowers students to question, design, investigate, and solve the world around them.
- Phenomenon Based - Centered around exploring phenomena or solving problems
- Driven by Student Questions - Storyline based on students’ questions and ideas
- Grounded in Evidence - Incremental building and revision of ideas based on evidence
- Collaborative - class and teacher figure out ideas together
- Equitable - Builds a classroom culture that values ideas and learning of all
The OpenSciEd computer science units use a flexible “STEM sound board” approach that turns science, technology, engineering, math, and computer science up or down to match each lesson’s goals. Students experience just the right mix of STEM as they explore a storyline, discovering how science and computer science naturally work together. From modeling and analyzing data to designing creative solutions inspired by real-world phenomena, learners see how these fields team up to solve meaningful problems.
Unit 8.1 + Computer Science: Why does contact between objects sometimes cause damage, and how can we protect against it?
This unit on contact forces begins as students consider situations in which they have seen their phones break. They contrast these situations with others where something else collided with another object and either broke or, surprisingly, did not. Attempting to identify the factors that contribute to damage occurring in some collisions and not others, as well as trying to explain what is happening during the collision that causes one type of result versus another, sparks a series of questions and ideas for investigations around the question why do things sometimes get damaged when they hit each other? This drives the work for the first two-thirds of the unit, with the second third layering on the problem of measuring forces in collisions. The last third of the unit re-anchors around a related question and a design problem that invites students to design sensor systems or other solutions to measure forces as a way to minimize damage from collisions or solve related problems.
The Student Workbook, Teacher Edition and material kits are sold separately.
Unit Overview
Unit Storyline
Lesson 1: What happens when two things hit each other?
Lesson 2: What causes changes in the motion and shape of colliding objects?
Lesson 3: Do all objects change shape or bend when they are pushed in a collision?
Lesson 4: How much do you have to push on any object to get it to deform (temporarily vs. permanently)?
Lesson 5: How do the force interactions on the objects in contact compare?
Lesson 6: What have we figured out about objects interacting in collisions and how can we use those ideas?
Lesson 7: How much does doubling the speed or doubling the mass affect the kinetic energy of an object?
Lesson 8: Where did the energy in our launcher system come from, and after the collisions, where did it go?
Lesson 9: What inputs can different sensors detect and how can we repurpose them to respond to changes in the force applied to a system?
Lesson 10: How might a digital device measure forces more reliably than a spring scale?
Lesson 11: How does the micro:bit know what output to provide when the sensor gives an input?
Lesson 12: How can sensor systems be designed to differentiate between high- and low-energy collisions to help prevent damage from larger impacts?
Lesson 13: Why do some objects break or not break in a collision and how can sensors help prevent collisions?
Lesson 14: What criteria should we use to evaluate all the different design solutions we want to build, test, and refine?
Lesson 15: How does building and (re)testing a prototype of our designs help us refine our design proposals?
Lesson 16: How can we use feedback from other teams to refine our own designs?
Lesson 17: How can we best communicate our design ideas to others? (Optional)
NATIONAL CENTER FOR
OpenSciEd® was launched to improve the supply of and address the demand for high-quality, open-source, full course science instructional materials. The goals of OpenSciEd are to ensure any science teacher, anywhere, can access and download freely available, high quality, locally adaptable materials. Though the goal of providing full course materials is still a couple of years away, OpenSciEd is releasing six-week units of instruction as they are completed and externally evaluated as quality by Achieve’s Science Peer Review Panel. OpenSciEd classroom materials are an open education resource and therefore free to download, copy, use, and/or modify. You can download the instructional materials free of charge at Access Materials page on the OpenSciEd website. In an effort to lower barriers for all educators to use OpenSciEd, Kendall Hunt and OpenSciEd have partnered to sell high quality printed books, professional learning and lab kits.