Physical ScienceMotion and ForcesYear 2 Science

Pushes and pulls: starting, stopping and turning

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What this lesson covers

A force is a push or a pull
Forces can start something moving or stop it
Forces can make things faster, slower, or change direction
Ways things move: rolling, sliding, gliding, bouncing, spinning and falling
Testing big and small pushes, and recording what happens

Key idea

A force is a push or a pull

A force is a push or a pull.
A push moves something away from you, like shutting a door.
A pull moves something towards you, like opening a drawer.
You cannot see a force, but you can see what it does. Arrows show which way a force acts.

Key idea

Try it: push or pull?

Key idea

Starting and stopping

A ball on the grass stays still until a force moves it.
A kick is a push that starts the ball moving.
A goalkeeper's hands push back on the ball and stop it.

Key idea

Faster, slower, or a new direction

A force can change how something is already moving.
A push in the same direction makes it go faster.
A push the opposite way makes it go slower.
A push from the side makes it change direction.

Three rolling balls: a push from behind makes one go faster, a push from the front makes one go slower, and a push from the side makes one turn

Key idea

Ways things move

Things can move in different ways.

Way of moving	Example
Rolling	A ball going down a hill
Sliding	A book pushed across a table
Gliding	A paper plane, a toroa (albatross) over the sea
Bouncing	A netball dropped on the court
Spinning	A spinning top
Falling	An apple dropping from a tree

Key idea

Try it: how does it move?

Worked example

What did the force do?

Say what each force does: a kick sends a still ball forward; a hand catches a ball; a bat hits a ball back the way it came; a push from behind on a swing.

Kick: the ball starts movingstart
Catch: the ball stopsstop
Bat: the ball changes directionturn
Push on a swing: it goes fasterspeed up
Start, stop, change direction, go faster

Worked example

Big push, small push

Room 5 predicted that a bigger push would send a toy car further. They pushed it three times and counted the floor tiles it rolled over.
They wrote down what they saw: faster, slower, stopped or turned.

Push	Floor tiles rolled	What we saw
Small	3	Rolled slowly, stopped soon
Medium	6	Rolled faster
Big	10	Rolled fastest, turned a little at the end

A bar graph of Room 5's toy car test: a small push went 3 floor tiles, a medium push 6 tiles and a big push 10 tiles

Small push: 3 tilesshortest
Big push: 10 tilesfurthest
A bigger push made the car go faster and further, so the prediction was right

Key idea

Try it: tiles rolled for each push

Common mistakes

When I push a heavy box and it does not move, there is no force.
You are still pushing; your push is just not big enough to start the box moving.
A rolling ball stops because it gets tired.
The ground and the air rub on the ball, and that rubbing is a force that slows it down.
A push and a pull are the same thing.
A push moves something away from you; a pull moves it towards you.

Try it at home

Toy car push test

You need: a toy car, a strip of tape or a book for a start line, a clear floor, paper and a pencil

Put the car on the start line.
Give it a small push and count how many hand spans it rolls. Write it down.
Give it a big push from the same line and count again.
Roll the car again, and gently tap it from the side as it goes past.
Look for this: the big push sends it further, and the side tap makes it turn.

Safety: Do this on a clear floor with an adult nearby, away from stairs, and pick the car up after so nobody trips or slips on it.

Your turn

Opening a drawer: is that a push or a pull?

You push a swing gently, then much harder. What happens with the harder push?

A ball rolls towards you and you put your foot on it. What does your push do?

How does a paper plane move through the air?

In Room 5's test, how far did the car go after the big push?

Show answer

1. A pull. 2. The swing goes faster and higher. 3. It stops the ball. 4. It glides. 5. 10 floor tiles.

Try it

Forces and Motion: Basics

Full screen · PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado Boulder, CC BY 4.0

Summary

Recap

A force is a push or a pull.
Forces can start or stop movement.
Forces can make things faster, slower, or turn.
Things roll, slide, glide, bounce, spin and fall.
A bigger push makes a bigger change, which we can test and record in a table.

Maths

The maths behind it

Year 2 MathsMeasuring Length, Mass and Capacity Year 2 MathsPicture Graphs and Dot Plots

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