Year 3 Forces

Year 3 have been learning about simple forces – pushes and pulls. We push and pull objects to do many different things. When we push or pull objects we can move the object, change the shape of the object or make the object change direction. We push and pull objects everyday!

To investigate which surface was the best for our protractor to move on, we planned and carried out a fair test to compare how an object moves on different surfaces. We planned out our test, thinking about which bits we could change and which bits needed to stay the same, in order to make it a fair test, and the following week we carried out our investigation and recorded our results!

We found that the protractor moved differently on different surfaces because each surface was made of a different material. A bigger force was needed on some materials, whilst a smaller force was needed on other materials. This changed how the protractor moved across the surface.

We then found out that unlike pushes and pulls, magnets only need to be near each other to attract and repel. They don’t need to be touching. The space around a magnet has attracting and repelling forces. We used everyday object in the classroom to find out which were magnetic and which were not.