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Topic ladders · Science

Forces

One topic, four rungs: from Classes 1–3 to Classes 11–12. Start at your own stage, or climb from the bottom. Every rung follows the same six steps: Notice, Guess, Try, Observe, Explain, Ask another question.

Print the family table: all four rungs side by side on one sheet, so everyone at home can find their own rung.

Choose your class stage

Rung 1 · Classes 1–3

Pushes and Pulls Around Us

Before you start: safety and help

For the grown-up who helps.

  • Safety: Ensure enough space, use soft objects, and keep away from stairs, roads and breakable things.
  • Good questions: "Did you push or pull?" "What changed?"

What you need

  • Toys (ball, toy car, soft toy)
  • Open space

Child steps

  1. Notice. What makes things move or stop?
  2. Guess. What will happen if you push a ball gently? Hard? What if you pull a toy?
  3. Try. Push and pull different objects. Try starting, stopping, and changing direction.
  4. Observe. Which actions made the object move faster or farther?
  5. Explain. Tell someone what a push does and what a pull does.
  6. Ask another question. Can you find pushes and pulls in the playground or at home?
For teachers
  • Learning aims: Identify pushes and pulls as forces; observe their effects on movement (start, stop, speed up, slow down, change direction, change shape).
  • Key vocabulary: push, pull, force, move, stop.
  • Review: Children demonstrate one push and one pull and describe the effect.

Rung 2 · Classes 4–7

Friction – Friend or Enemy?

Before you start: safety and help

For the grown-up or teacher who helps. Students: read it too, so you know the rules.

  • Help keep everything the same except the surface: same ramp, same height, same car.

What you need

  • Toy car or block
  • A book or board to make a small ramp
  • Different surfaces (smooth floor, newspaper, cloth, sandpaper, carpet)
  • Ruler or measuring tape

Student steps

  1. Notice. Why do some things slide easily and others stop quickly?
  2. Guess. On which surface will the toy car travel farthest?
  3. Try. Let the car roll down the same ramp from the same starting line each time, onto different surfaces. Measure the distance travelled from the bottom of the ramp. Do each surface three times.
  4. Observe. Record the distances. Which surface gave the longest and shortest distance?
  5. Explain. What force is slowing the car down? When is this force useful? When is it a problem?
  6. Ask another question. How can we reduce or increase friction in daily life (shoes, tyres, slides)?
For teachers
  • Learning aims: Investigate friction; understand it as a force that opposes motion; identify useful and unwanted friction; run a fair test with repeats.
  • Key vocabulary: friction, surface, force, oppose, distance, fair test.
  • Review: Students rank surfaces using their average distances and explain the role of friction.

Rung 3 · Classes 8–10

Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

Before you start: safety and help

For the grown-up or teacher who helps. Students: read it too, so you know the rules.

  • Safety: Use light masses only, and never hang masses over feet. Stretch rubber bands away from faces, because they can snap.

What you need

  • Spring balance (newton meter) or a rubber band
  • Light masses or objects (up to about 500 g)
  • Smooth surface, a toy car or a small box

Student steps

  1. Notice. Start with something floating, like a bottle cap in a bowl of water. Gravity pulls it down, yet it stays still. Draw it with two arrows of equal length: weight pointing down, upthrust pointing up. Sometimes objects stay still even when forces act on them. Sometimes they start moving.
  2. Guess. What is the difference between balanced and unbalanced forces?
  3. Try. Pull the box or car with one or two spring balances or rubber bands: in the same direction, in opposite directions, with equal and unequal pulls. Observe the effect on motion.
  4. Observe. Record the readings and whether the object stays still, speeds up, slows down, or changes direction.
  5. Explain. Link your observations to the idea of net force (add forces in the same direction, subtract opposite ones). Draw simple force diagrams with arrows. When the net force is not zero, the speed changes. If a car goes from 0 to 2 metres per second in 4 seconds, its speed grows by 0.5 metres per second every second: that change per second is called acceleration, measured in metres per second per second (m/s²). The next rung measures it.
  6. Ask another question. How do balanced and unbalanced forces appear in walking, cycling, or floating?
For teachers
  • Learning aims: Distinguish balanced and unbalanced forces; relate net force to change in motion; draw force diagrams.
  • Key vocabulary: balanced forces, unbalanced forces, net force, motion, newton, upthrust, acceleration.
  • Note: Balanced forces do not always mean "still": an object can also keep moving at a steady speed in a straight line.
  • Review: Students draw and explain one balanced and one unbalanced situation.

Rung 4 · Classes 11–12

Investigating Newton's Laws Quantitatively

Before you start: safety and help

For the grown-up or teacher who helps. Students: read it too, so you know the rules.

  • Safety: Put a box or a soft stop at the end of the runway; keep feet clear of the falling hanger; keep masses small.

What you need

  • Dynamics trolley and runway (or a smooth plank), pulley, string, slotted masses with hanger, stopwatch or ticker timer, light gates, or a smartphone sensor app if available

Student steps

  1. Notice. Force, mass and acceleration are related.
  2. Guess / Hypothesise. How does acceleration change when force is increased or mass is increased?
  3. Try. Design and carry out experiments to test the relationships in Newton's second law. Tilt the runway slightly so the trolley rolls at a steady speed with no pull: this cancels friction. To change the force fairly, move masses from the trolley to the hanger, so the total mass stays the same.
  4. Observe. Collect data for force, mass and acceleration, with repeats. Plot appropriate graphs (a against F; a against 1/m).
  5. Explain. Analyse the graphs and derive the relationship. Discuss experimental limitations and errors.
  6. Ask another question. How do these principles apply to vehicle safety, rockets, or sports?
For teachers
  • Learning aims: Test F = ma experimentally; handle data, graphs and experimental uncertainty.
  • Uncertainty language matches Activities 3.4 and 4.4.
  • Review: Students present graphs, calculated values, and discussion of accuracy.

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