Science: How Materials Affect Forces

This lesson pack includes a Notebook presentation and linking worksheets, getting children to investigate how different materials can affect the movement of an object. First, they recap what forces are, such as push/pulls, then move on to understanding gravity.
A push force is not needed to make a car go down a ramp, because gravity acts upon the car, moving it to the flat surface. However the material on the flat surface can affect how far the car travels, and therefore affects the force upon the car. The children will investigate which materials will impact most on the force of the car (i.e. which material will allow the car to go furthest/not as far) using the following objective and criteria:

Objective: To investigate how materials affect forces
Success Criteria
I can make predictions using prior knowledge
I can carry out an enquiry to test a prediction
I can take and record accurate measurements
I can use my results to draw simple conclusions