Up, Up, and Away

or Will Forces Make it Stay?

Adventures in Forces and Interactions

Name:______________________ Teacher: ________________

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 Hi! Im Noah. Im in third grade. I hear youre in
3rd grade too. Cool! Did you have a super fun
summer like I did? There was one trip I took
with my family that Id like to tell you about.

See, I really like flying. One day I want to be a

pilot. I want to do those awesome tricks and flips in the sky. So,
when my parents told me we were going to have a chance to go
fly in the sky in a hot air balloon, I was totally pumped. In the sky
is where Id love to be!

We arrived at this field area in late morning on that day. We were

going to go up in the balloon all together, then float around and
see some countryside, and then come back. We had to wait with
some other people.

When we finally got ready to go, I looked up at the balloon. Do

you know how big those hot air balloons are?! I had no idea! It
seemed like the balloons streams of colorful fabric kept rising and
rising.

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We climbed some steps onto a platform. On it was the basket
where people ride. My parents, my sister, and my grandparents
all got in. And of course, the balloon pilot. The basket had ropes
attached at the 4 corners, I guess to make sure we didnt float off
before we were ready!

The pilot released the ropes. I was so excited. I was hoping it

would feel like we were birds taking off! I heard the roar of the
burner above us. But nothing. We looked at each other. The
balloon just sat there. What was going on? I felt more like a
groundhog than a bird. The ropes were gone, so what was
holding us down on the ground?

The pilot mentioned something about the forces at work. Was he

talking about Jedis or something?
What IS a force? _______________________________________
And what was pushing or pulling our balloon? Lets start our
adventure there.

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Lets help Noah figure out why his balloon wouldnt float up into the air. Lets see what happens
when you let objects go when theyre in the air.

Directions: Hold each item over the floor or table. Let it go. Carefully observe how it moves after
that, any noises it makes, if it bounces, etc. Try each item 3 times (trials). Write down your
observations. Be as detailed as possible! What Goes Up.

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3

Soccer ball

Tennis ball

Paper plate

Inflated balloon

Textbook

Marker

Crayon

1. Using your observations from your investigation, make a claim about what happens to
all objects when they are released into the airwith nothing holding them up.

All objects ____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

Answer the next 2 questions after watching the video segment Gravity on Earth.

2. Where does gravity on Earth pull all objects?

3. How can you tell gravity pulls on plants?

___________________________________________________________________________

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 Okay, so I guess theres a reason we stayed on
the ground. The same reason all those things
you dropped fell.

What force kept the balloon down?

_______________

Of course, that makes sense. Objects dont

float on Earth. It would be so cool if we did! But what about the
burners? The balloon seemed to be working right.

And how exactly do they work? Well, the pilot told us. Somehow,
hot air is actually lighter than colder air, so when they shoot hot
air into the balloon, that air is lighter, and it makes the balloon
want to go up above the cooler air.

Like, if your teacher tried to push a ping pong ball full of air
underwater. What would happen to the ball? ________________
Thats right. It would pop up to the surface because the air is
lighter than the water. Thats how the balloon worked.

So when the hot air went into the balloon, why didnt it move?
If gravity is always pulling on objects, or if I push on something
really heavy, why do they sometimes stay still? Lets explore.
Look at the balloons in your classroom. They arent filled with
regular air from your lungs. Theyre filled with a different gas
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called helium. Helium is lighter than the gases in regular air. So
when you put helium in a balloon, it does what a hot air balloon
does. Tries to rise above the regular air!

I know gravity pulls on everything, but why are these balloons

stuck to the ceiling? How much stronger is the helium pushing up
than the gravity pulling down? How do we help gravity win this
tug of war?

I told my friends about this, and they said that I could reach up to
the top of the balloon and push it back down. Or I could pull the
string.
Would this work to pull the balloon down and KEEP it down? ____
Why or why not? (Think about what would happen if you let go.)
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________

Okay, I want the balloon to win its own fight. Is there some other
way to use the string to help lower the balloon? My super smart
friend Lissa said I could put extra stuff on the string to pull the
balloon down. What do you think? I think its worth a shot.
Question: How do I get my balloon to float in the middle of the
air?

Lissas guess (she said this is called a hypothesis):

_____________________________________________________
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Procedure: We should use the pipe cleaners (whatever sizes we
want) and hang them on the string to try to help gravity pull the
balloon down more.

Two solutions that worked (the Two solutions that didnt work
balloon was balanced in mid-air) (the balloon was unbalanced)

Conclusion: When we added weight to the string,

________________________________________________. This
created ________________ forces.

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Balanced vs. Unbalanced Forces Lesson Reflection
Think about the activities we have completed today, and answer the following questions in
complete sentences.

1. How can you tell that forces on an object are balanced?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
2. How are balanced forces different from unbalanced forces?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
3. What is one activity that people do that uses balanced forces? How do you know forces
are balanced?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
4. Label the arrows showing forces acting on the soccer ball as push, pull, or gravity.

5. Are the forces on the ball above going to be balanced or unbalanced when the ball is

kicked? __________________________
6. How do you know? _____________________________________________
7. Why didnt the balloon rise when the pilot turned on the burner? How does this relate
to balanced and unbalanced forces? __________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

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 I think Ive got it. When the pilot turned on
the burners, it didnt create enough of a
force to be stronger than gravity. Gravity
pulls things down to the ground, so there
our balloon sat. The forces pushing up and
down were balanced.
So, if I told the pilot to UN-balance the forces, then would the
balloon move? ___________ We needed to make sure we
could find a force stronger than gravity. But, how strong? Just
how do different amounts of force affect how something
moves? Does it affect the object the same way each time?

What I mean is if I give something the same exact small push,

would it do the same thing each time? And if I give the object
the same exact big push, would it cause the same result as the
small push? Would each big push affect the object the same
way? I need to figure this out to help the pilot. Lets go!

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 Lift Off!
1. Blow a balloon up to 10 cm around. Attach it to the straw then release it. Measure the
distance traveled in centimeters using your tape measure or meter stick. Record data in
the table below.
2. Blow the balloon up again, this time you (or your class) will choose the size (must stay
below the size set by your teacher).
3. Repeat for a 3rd balloon size. Remember to record your predictions and the actual
distance traveled.

Size of Balloon Prediction of Distance Distance Distance

(cm) distance traveled Traveled Traveled Traveled
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3
10 cm

Use the observations and data you collected today to answer the following questions.
Answers should be written in complete sentences.

1. When were the forces on the balloon balanced? How can you tell?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. When were the forces on the balloon unbalanced? How can you tell?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. Did you find that the distances the balloon rocket traveled when the balloon was blown
up to the same size were the same, or close? ______________
Why do you think this is? ___________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

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 It seems like a little bit of force usually
makes a small change in motion. Like, I
poke a toy car, and it will just barely roll.
But BIG amounts of force would cause big
changes in motion.

So this giant hot air balloon. Its pretty

heavy, so Im sure gravity is pulling on it pretty hard.

Do you think the burners need to create a large amount of

force to push the balloon up, or a small amount? __________

Right. Mega force. Like jet rocket engine force. Well, maybe
not that much. We want to stay in the basket! Well tell the
pilot he needs to make the burners work a little bit harder,
and then a little more, until the balloon fights gravity and
goes UP, UP, and AWAY!

Thanks so much for your help. Just so I dont forget, can you
help me write some sentences about forces?

Gravity _________________________________________.
Balanced forces happen when
________________________________________________.
Unbalanced forces happen when
_________________________________________________.

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 If I give something a small amount of force,
_________________________________________________.
If I give something a large amount of force,
__________________________________________________.

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 Together weve solved the mystery of the
balloon that wouldnt lift. It didnt have enough
force pushing up to fight gravity. But there was
another weird thing I saw happening at the hot
air balloon park.

As I said before, we had to wait a while to get

our balloon ride. The people who work there had an area where
kids like me could play while we waited. Sticking with the whole
balloon theme, they had some inflated balloons for us to play
with.
When my sister was playing with her balloon, I noticed that
her balloon kept sticking to her hair, sticking to her shirt, and even
some pieces of lint or dry grass were sticking to it. I tried to get
my balloon to stick to me. Nothing. I spent a good 5 minutes
trying to get that silly balloon to do the cool tricks hers would. But
nope.
I want to find out why did her balloon stick to things? I have
a feeling it might have something to do with forces. What do you
think?
Why did my sisters balloon stick to her hair and clothes?
______________________________________________________
Lets see if we can figure it out for sure!

Sticky Balloons?

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My friend Lissa helped me think of some things to do to test balloons to see why they
sometimes stick to things, and why they sometimes dont. The things she came up with are
called Procedures. Its a list of steps to follow during a scientific experiment.

Follow the procedures below.

1.
a. Tie the string to the end of the balloon.
b. Hold the balloon on the side opposite the string, with the tied end at the top.
c. Slowly turn the balloon so that the tied end is at the side.
d. Record (write) your observations of the interaction between the balloon and
string on your data sheet. Put a check or x to say if the prediction was right, and if
its wrong, write what it did instead.

Test Prediction Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3

Turn the Balloon The string will stick
test to the balloon, like
with my sisters
balloon!

2.
a. Take the plate of tissue paper and hold your balloon (by the string) 2 feet over it.
b. Slowly bring the balloon closer to the plate.
c. Record your observations of the interaction between the balloon and the tissue
paper on your data sheet. Put a check or x to say if your prediction was right, and if
its wrong, write what it did instead.

Test Prediction Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3

Tissue paper test The balloon will
________________________
_
________________________
_

3.
a. Rub the balloon on the carpet, your pants, or your head.
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 b. Hold the balloon where the smiley face is, with the tied end at the top.
c. Slowly turn the balloon so that the tied end is at the side.
d. Record your observations of the interaction between the balloon and string on your
data sheet. Put a check or x to say if your prediction was right, and if its wrong, write
what it did instead.

Test Prediction Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3

Turn the Balloon The balloon will
testpart 2 _____________________
_
_____________________
_

4.
a. Rub the balloon on the floor or on your pants or rough material.
b. Hold the balloon by the string at least 2 feet over the plate of tissue paper.
c. Slowly bring the balloon closer to the plate.
d. Record your observations of the interaction between the balloon and the tissue
paper on your data sheet. Put a check or x to say if your prediction was right, and
if its wrong, write what it did instead.

Test Prediction Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3

Tissue Paper Test The balloon will
part 2 _______________________
_
_______________________
_

5. What was the difference between the procedures of the first 2 tests and the last 2 tests?
Or, what new thing did we do in the last 2 tests?
________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

6. What happened in the tests where you rubbed the balloon first that did not happen
when you didnt?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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 So now I know why the balloon stuck to things sometimes, and not other times! Someone
must have rubbed the balloon on something, like their head or clothes, to make it stick. My
balloon hadnt been rubbed. But, why does this actually happen? I got the same answers you
got when I followed the procedures, then told my mom about it. She found a video to show
me about it.
Your teacher will show you the same video I saw, then you can talk about why that happens
parts of it confused me!

7. When you rub a balloon with wool, what does the wool give it? ____________________
8. When something has extra electrons, is it charged or not charged? _________________
9. When you put a charged object next to something that is also charged, what can
happen?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Ok, I think I have it. Rubbing, or friction, gives an object extra protons or electrons. Then, it
will either attract (stick together) or repel (push away) another charged object. My sisters
balloon must have been charged with static electricity, and my balloon wasnt.

Sticky Balloon Conclusion

How does static electricity cause objects to interact with each other?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

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 Ive learned so many cool things about forces
and how objects interact. I
wanted to tell you about
another thing I noticed about
the hot air balloon.
Remember that I said there were ropes to help
hold the balloon in place before our ride started?
Well, those ropes were held there in a weird way.
They didnt tie them. There were pieces of metal
on the ends of the rope, and those pieces of metal stuck to the rails
around the platform where we got on. There was no glue. They just
swung the rope over, and then the metal part stuck right to the rail.
What was going on there? Gravity holds things down, but are there
forces that can make things stick SIDEWAYS? Was it magic?!
Why do YOU think the metal thing stuck to the rail?
____________________________________________________________
Lets see if we can get to the bottom of this!

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 Your teacher has some pieces of metal that work the same way as
the metal on the ends of the ropes. Theyre called magnets. Magnets
arent magic, but they seem like it, looking at how they act!
So like I said, magnets can stick to some things, like the rail at the hot

air balloon park. We say the magnet is attracting the object.

Sometimes, a magnet can even push an object away without even
touching it! This is called repelling.

Sometimes, magnets dont seem to do anything to an object. I

would say this means the magnet has no interaction.
Im wondering, what kinds of things will interact with a magnet? If I
stick a magnet on my sister, will it stick to her?! That would be a fun trick.
The metal on the rope stuck to, or was attracted to, the rail. What could
the rail have been made of? Lets investigate!

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Magic Metals: What Attracts?
Question: How do magnets interact with different objects?
What 2 possible interactions could a magnet have with objects? Those interactions should
become your HEADINGS in your t-chart.

Test the objects listed. Write their

names in the chart to show if they
interacted by attracting/repelling,
or had no interaction.

Objects to test:

iron nail

cork

steel staples

rubber eraser

plastic spoon

brass weight

popsicle stick

aluminum foil

gumball
In the space below, write 2 or more conclusions you
drew about the behavior of magnets with different materials.

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 So we learned that magnets can attract to some
materials. Magnets can repel some things. Magnets
have no interaction at all with other things. But what
about when we put two magnets together?

Lets learn a little about how magnets are made.

Magnets have what we call poles. They have a north
pole, and a south pole. No, there arent any Santas or penguins at either
side. Its just a way to describe the different parts of a magnet.
Magnets can look different ways, but they all have a north and south
pole somewhere on them.

How do magnets interact with each other?

Prediction:

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 1. Procedure

Investigate interactions between unlabeled magnets and labeled magnets (the ones with N and
S on them).

Record your observations in pictures and words.

Magnet Interactions

2. Put the same poles of two labeled magnets together (N and N). What happens?
_____________________________________________________________________________

3. Put opposite poles of two labeled magnets together (N and S). What happens?
_____________________________________________________________________________

Magnets Conclusion:
4. Describe what happens when two magnets have the same poles near each other.

5. What happens when opposite poles come near each other?

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Forces at a Distance
Prediction:

What do you think will happen with the paperclips as the height changes?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Record your observations about the strength of the magnet from each height provided.

Observations of strength

Height/Distance in Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3

inches

12 in.
9 in.
6 in.
4 in.
2 in.
If you have time remaining test other heights such as 1 in., 5 in., or 8 in. and observe
what happens.

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Day 1 Forces at a Distance Lab Reflection
Answer the following questions based on your observations today. Please use complete
sentences.

1. At what height did the magnet pick up the MOST paperclips?

2. At what height did the magnet pick up the LEAST paperclips?

3. Did your group observe the force of the magnet working, even when it didnt pick
up paperclips? How do you know?

____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Day 2 Forces at a Distance Lesson Reflection
Over the last 2 classes you have investigated the interactions of magnets. Describe in your
own words how you think magnets work, and use evidence from our investigations to
support your thoughts. Use extra paper if needed.

__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

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 I think I understand now. The magnets on the end of
the ropes must have had opposite poles to the rails.
The rails also had to be magnetic to attract to the
magnets. They pulled the ropes away to help us get
ready for lift-off.
Back to lift-off. Remember, at first, our balloon
wouldnt go up. We found out that the force of the air
had to be stronger than gravity for the balloon to lift off. But could I
also use magnets to help push the basket away from the platform? I bet
we could!
When opposite poles of magnets are together, they _____________.
But when the SAME poles come together, they _______________.
Lets have your teacher demonstrate this. Have your teacher hold a
pencil with the eraser standing on the table or some other surface. Have
your teacher put one ring magnet over the pencil. One important thing
to know is that ring magnets have their poles on the top and bottom.
Have your teacher add a second magnet on top.
What did it do? _____________
Which poles were together? __________________________
Have your teacher flip the top magnet over.
What did it do now? ________________
Which poles were together? _____________________________

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 So, using this knowledge, how would we use magnets to help push
the basket away from the platform? Talk with your team and write an
idea.
Prediction: We could have magnets on __________________ and
magnets on ________________________________________. We could
have ___________ poles put together so that the poles would
_____________.
Wow, wouldnt that hot air balloon company be SO impressed if
third graders designed a way for them to make their hot air balloons
LEVITATE (or float)?! I know they would! I need your help with that.
Ok, first, you and your class need to discuss how scientists go about
solving problems or designing things. Discuss with your class what rules
you should follow to be sure you get the best results.
Write some of your rules here for working together.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Next, there is a way scientists think to solve problems in a way that
makes sense. Using the page your teacher shows you, study the
engineering design process. This is what engineers use to solve problems
or design something. You will need to follow these steps to be an
engineer!

We know the first step is to figure out our question.

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 Our question is:
How can I use magnets to _________________________________?
Now for possible solution ideas. Draw a picture of the ideas in your
prediction and the way you would make it look using the materials you
have available. On your picture, label the poles of your magnets and
draw arrows showing how they would attract or repel to make the basket
do what we want.
Floating hot air balloon design:

If you have more than one idea, circle the one your group thinks is best.
Next, build your solution! Be sure you use only the allowed materials and
work together to solve problems. Everyones ideas are valuable and
important!
Test your design to see if the balloon floats. Does it work well? If not,
figure out why not, and change something! Then, test it again. Repeat
until it works!

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 We sure have learned a lot together about forces and
interactions. An important part of learning is thinking
about what you learned. Write a letter to someone
special telling them about what youve learned this
quarter about forces and interactions.
Some words you could include: forces, gravity, push,
pull, unbalanced, balanced, motion, static electricity,
magnets, magnetic, attract, repel, levitate
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

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