UNLV/Department of Teaching & Learning

Elementary Lesson Plan Template

UNLV Student: Alexa White PSMT Name: Amber Ponte

Lesson Plan Marshmallow Lesson Plan Force and Motion
Title: Shooters! Topic:
Date: 3/16/17 Estimated Time: 30 minutes
Grade Level: 3rd School Site: Bonner Elementary

1. State Standard(s):
3-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of
balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
a. PS2.A: Forces and Motion - Each force acts on one particular object and
has both strength and a direction. An object at rest typically has multiple
forces acting on it, but they add to give zero net force on the object. Forces
that do not sum to zero can cause changes in the objects speed or
direction of motion. (Boundary: Qualitative and conceptual, but not
quantitative addition of forces are used at this level.) (3-PS2-1)

2. Teaching Model(s): direct instruction, cooperative-based group work

3. Objective(s):
Students will understand vocabulary words related to force and motion
Students will understand the forces acting on an object at rest and in motion
Students will carry out an experiment in order to determine the relationship
between distance and force exerted on an object

4. Materials and Technology Resources: pre-made marshmallow shooters (plastic cups,

balloons, mini marshmallows), duct tape, buckets, worksheets, plicker sheets,
SMARTboard, computer and pencils

5. Instructional Procedures:
a. Motivation/Engagement: (5 minutes)
Review key terms for the past couple of weeks (Use Lemovs Cold Call
Strategy to call on students to define each term in own words)
1. Force
2. Distance
3. Potential Energy
 4. Kinetic Energy
5. Gravity
6. Mass
b .Developmental Activities or Learning Experiences: (20 minutes)
Introduce the marshmallow shooters and how they work
Pass out worksheets
With a shoulder partner, discuss answers to questions, review as a whole
class, and then write answers down on the worksheet
1. What happens when you give an object a little force? (Blooms:
Understand/Comprehension)
2. What happens when you give an object a lot of force? (Blooms:
Understand/Comprehension)
3. How does force apply to distance? (Blooms: Application)
4. When the marshmallow is sitting in the shooter waiting to be
launched, what kind of energy does it have? (Blooms:
Remember/Recall)
5. When the marshmallow has been launched and is travelling through
the air, what kind of energy does it have? (Blooms:
Remember/Recall)
6. What type of force always acts on the marshmallow whether its in
motion or not? (Blooms: Remember/Recall)
7. Predict what will happen in the experiment. (Blooms: Application)
Explicitly explain the procedures of the experiment
1. Students will be in (pre-arranged) groups of 3 with 1 marshmallow
shooter per group
2. Class will be going outside to shoot marshmallows
3. There will be 3 different distances with buckets at each distance
4. Each child will get a turn to shoot a marshmallow at each distance to
try to get it in each bucket
Have students go back inside to finish the rest of the worksheet
1. Was your prediction correct? (Blooms: Remember/Recall)
2. What happened in the experiment? (Blooms: Remember/Recall)
3. Draw a picture of the experiment.
4. Explain what would happen if we changed the mass of the object
being thrown. For example, if we launched a golf ball instead of a
marshmallow. How would the distance change? (Blooms:
Evaluate/Synthesize)

c. Closure: (5 minutes)
Review the experiment with the class. For extra review of concepts related to the
experiment, use Plickers to ask questions.

d. Extension: If time permits, have each child try to shoot the marshmallow as far as
he/she can. For an extra challenge, have the students answer this question: Did
inertia come into play at all during this experiment? Why or why not? (Blooms:
Application & Evaluation)
6. Accommodations: I will provide extra support to Kenyin, Alli, David, and Mossimo
when completing the worksheet by providing sentence starters for them.

Modifications: I will have some students work in partners on the completion of the
worksheet.

Differentiations: I will group the students together based on their levels so that they can
get support from each other. I will put a high student with a medium and low student.

7. Assessment and Evaluation of Learning:

a. Formative: Teacher will assess students understanding of concepts during the
initial questions. If needed, teacher will review the vocabulary words and concepts.
b. Summative: The graded worksheets

8. Homework Assignment: No homework because objectives were met in class.

9. Reflection:
a. Strengths: This lesson addressed the standard very well, and the use of Plickers
for review questions as well as the worksheets allowed me to formatively assess
my students to see if they were understanding.
b. Concerns: The marshmallow shooters kept breaking during the experiment, so I
was actually pretty upset about that. I explicitly explained the directions and
modeled how to shoot the marshmallows several times. I guess I should have
anticipated that third graders would be rough with the shooters. I am much more
prepared now if I teach this lesson in the future. I will plan on taping the balloons
to the cups, and even tripling up on the cups.
c. Insights: The entirety of this lesson served as a reinforcement of concepts
previously learned. The only vocabulary word that I had to introduce was distance,
which most of the students knew anyway. The students had been working on force
and motion in science for several weeks. If I were to give this lesson at the
beginning of a unit, I would expand it over a few days by starting with the
vocabulary content and then getting into the experiment. Even thought the
marshmallow shooters kept breaking, the students still understood the concept and
they had a blast while doing it. It was definitely a great learning experience to
understand that not all lessons will go perfectly. Overall, I think the lesson was a
success.