This document outlines a lesson plan on forces and Newton's first law of motion for high school physics students. The lesson aims to help students differentiate between types of forces and understand the concept of force and Newton's first law. It includes pre-assessment questions, definitions, illustrations, and an activity to explain balanced and unbalanced forces. At the end of the lesson, students will complete additional assessments to test their understanding of the topics covered.

1. LESSSON TITLE: FORCES: NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF
MOTION, BALANCED
&UNBALANCED FORCES
SUBJECT: PHYSICS(INTRODUCTORY)
TARGET GROUP: HIGH SCHOOL (15YRS.)
Science Power (SP)
Electronic learning environments & E-learning design

2. Aims & Objectives
To encourage self-regulated learning
To ensure 24/7 online accessibility for learners
To give timely feedback and information
Platform for storage of prior lessons

3. Target group
High school students
Science students
14yrs – 16yrs

4. Learning objectives
Students remember previous knowledge (scafolding)
At the end of the lesson students will be able to differenciate
types of forces
Students will understand the concept of force
Know and be able to apply the Newton’s first law of motion
Be able to give examples of balanced and unbalanced forces

5. Pre-assessment
1) A stationary object has no forces acting on it.
 True or False
2) A stationary object has net or balanced forces acting on it.
 True or False
Feedback
When you push on a stationary object, you are applying a force. Despite this, you still
might not be able to accelerate it. That is because there might be another force that nets
against yours.
For example, you push on a beached whale. The reason why you can't accelerate it is
because the force of friction between the whale and the sand perfectly nets against (same
magnitude, opposite direction) the force you are applying.
For another example, you're presumably not plummeting to the center of the Earth right
now despite the fact that Earth's gravity is pulling on you. This is because your chair is
exerting a normal force in the opposite direction (radially outwards from the center of
Earth) that perfectly offsets the force of gravity.
This statement would have been true for question one, if it said
“balance forces", not just "forces".

6. Scaffold
Last lesson, we defined force as any interaction which
tends to change the motion of an object
Forces are also described as a push or pull on an object.
They can be due to phenomena such as gravity,
magnetism, or anything that might cause a mass to
accelerate.
Students give example of cases where force is in action.

7. Assessments
At the end of the lesson ‘true or false’ questions will
be made available to test students’ understanding of
the topic
Students are also required to give situation or
instances where Newton’s first law of motion is in
action

8. Definition
Newton’s first law of motion states that:
Everybody or an object persists in its state of being at rest
or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar
as it is compelled to change its state by force impressed
Or
An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in
motion remains in motion unless acted on by an
unbalanced force or a net force
The Newton’s first law of motion is also called the law of
inertia

9. Illustration

10. Balanced and unbalanced forces
(Class activity)
10N
25N
10N 10N

11. Balanced and unbalanced forces
Which of the following is/are correct?
(a)An object in motion will slow down unless it is acted on
by an unbalanced force in the direction of motion
(b)An object in motion will maintain its speed and direction
forever unless acted on by an unbalanced force
(c)An object at rest will stay at rest unless acted on by an
unbalanced force
(d)An object acted on by an unbalanced force will always
accelerate in the direction of the of the unbalanced force

12. Explanation of balanced and unbalanced force
The diagram above is a ball with forces
from four different dimensions acting on it.
If for example all the forces are balanced,
all of 5 Newton (5N) each, then the ball will
remain at rest.
But in a case where the forces from certain
direction are greater than the ones from
the other direction, for example if the
Newton of the forces varies, some are 5N
and others are 15N; the body becomes
unstable and moves in the direction of the
greater force, either down, up, side,
etcetera. The same is true for children
playing on a swing.

13. Next lesson
Next class, we shall learn about Newton’s second law of motion.
Watch the following videos:
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/forc
es-newtons-laws/newtons-laws-of-
motion/v/newton-s-1st-law-of-motion
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/forc
es-newtons-laws/newtons-laws-of-
motion/v/newton-s-second-law-of-motion

14. Team work
The work for this project was shared equally,
working together eithyer physically or virtually
(online).
Still work -in- progress