Falling and Flying

Work done in this Nuffield 13 - 16 module followed from the S unit called ‘Cars on the move’. This X Unit provided enough material for eight double periods. It could be selected to complete either a Science or a Further Science course.

The teachers’ guide included 10 worksheets to supplement the students’ booklet. The teachers’ guide discussed the basic conflict between the approaches of the two programmes on which Nuffield 13-16 was based:  Nuffield Secondary Science and SCISP.

The authors quoted this extract from Nuffield Secondary Science: “The mathematical treatment of motion is to a large extent avoided and concepts such as acceleration, momentum, and kinetic energy are not precisely defined. Nevertheless, it is hoped that pupils will obtain a reasonable working knowledge of these ideas.”

The SCISP course, in contrast, based its quantitative treatment on Newton’s laws of motion. It also involves the construction and use of graphs to represent motion, and requires pupils to draw conclusions from them.

In this unit the main approach was the non-mathematical one of Nuffield Secondary Science on the grounds that many pupils did not need not go beyond simple ideas such as 'more force means more acceleration'. But where appropriate, the work was developed beyond this, to a more mathematical level, usually with the help of a Worksheet.

Contents

1. Come fly with me

2. Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow?

3. Lift and drag

4. Push and blow

5. Rock and roll

6. Falling free?

7. Down the slippery slope

8. What goes up must come down