MS-PS2-5
The standard
Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.
Next Generation Science Standards
What this standard means
Students need to investigate forces that act without touching. They should use magnets or charged objects, collect observations, and use those observations as evidence that an invisible field is present. They also need to judge the setup, not just run it, by asking if the test was fair, repeatable, and strong enough to support the claim.
Mastery looks like a clear claim supported by patterns in evidence, such as attraction, repulsion, or changing strength with distance. Students often confuse fields with air, energy, or magnetism only. They may also say “it moved” without explaining how the design rules out contact or other causes.
Ways to teach it
- Have students move a paper clip with a magnet through cardboard, plastic, and cloth, then compare how distance changes the effect.
- Ask students to write: How do we know a force is acting if the objects never touch?
- Show two charged tape strips attracting or repelling, then ask students to name the claim, evidence, and one design weakness.
- Connect to a refrigerator magnet, wireless charger, or compass, and have students explain the unseen field causing the effect.
Plan a lesson for MS-PS2-5
Generate a complete lesson plan aligned to this standard, with objectives, activities, and materials. Free, no account needed.
Related standards
- K-PS2-1
Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.
- 3-PS2-3
Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.
- 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.
- MS-PS2-2
Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object's motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.