S.8.18: Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to…

Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop Grade 8

Why you lurch forward when the bus brakes, how fast a toy car really goes, why heavier carts hit harder, and how to build a crumple zone that saves an egg. Four lessons on inertia, speed, mass and stopping safely.

• Can you design a crumple zone? Two periods of 45–60 min (or one 75–90 min block)

  Teams design, build and test a crumple zone that lets a raw egg in a zip bag survive a cart crash into a wall, working to a budget and a size limit. They measure how far each design crushed and use class data to explain why a longer stop means a smaller force.

Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam Grades 6–7

Science and English together, for English learners (CEFR B1). Three investigations from Vietnam: how rain carved the limestone islands of Hạ Long Bay, why builders trust hollow bamboo, and how a roof can survive a typhoon.

• How did rain carve the islands of Hạ Long Bay? 60 min, plus 15 minutes the next day

  Science and English together, for English learners at CEFR B1. Teams drop limestone and shells into vinegar, water and soda water, watch for bubbles and weigh what is left the next day. Then they use the evidence to explain to a tour boat guide how weak acid in rain carved the towers and caves of Hạ Long Bay.

• Why do builders in Vietnam trust bamboo? 60 min, or two 35-minute periods

  Science and English together, for English learners at CEFR B1. Teams make four beams from identical sheets of paper (a flat sheet, a solid rod, a hollow tube and a tube with 'nodes'), load each one with water until it bends, and work out strength per gram. Then they use the evidence to explain why bamboo is shaped the way it is, and design a bamboo footbridge.

• How can a roof survive a typhoon? 60 min, or two 35-minute periods

  Science and English together, for English learners at CEFR B1. Teams build a card house, then test roofs in the wind from a fan: loose, long overhang, short overhang, weighted and tied down. They use the results to explain why wind lifts roofs and to advise a family in Đà Nẵng before a typhoon.

Printable practice for S.8.18

• Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop workbook included with the unit

  2 practice pages, 2 readings, 1 English-support page, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

• Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam workbook included with the unit

  2 readings, 1 word wall, 1 practice page, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

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