KS2 Science: The force of friction

Video summary

Mwaksy and Greg explore the effects of friction, including air and water resistance and investigate how friction slows or stops moving objects.

After first using friction to stick two books together, the pair drop clay shapes into water to learn about other kinds of friction: air and water resistance.

Show Me the Science is a series of short films and teacher resources for primary schools, following presenters Mwaksy Mudenda and Greg Foot as they use demonstrations, experiments and animations to learn about forces and electricity.

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Teacher Notes

Before watching the film:

Prior to this lesson you may wish to introduce students to other relevant topics, for example:

During the film:

Depending on your lesson’s focus, you may wish to pause the video at certain points to check for understanding, asking questions such as:

  • What do you feel when you rub your hands together? What would change if your hands were covered in slippery soap?
  • Can you think of a time when someone nearly fell over because there wasn’t enough friction? What was the floor like that day? What shoes were they wearing?
  • Can you stick two books together using friction, like Mwaksy and Greg?
  • What other modelling clay shapes could Mwaksy and Greg try in the water?

Final question:

How might friction be useful?

Discussion points for the final question:

  • Friction is really good at slowing things down. What sort of things might need to be slowed down?
  • Could we stick anything else together using friction?
  • How do we use friction in sport? (e.g. shoes with studs to run faster, rackets with rubber grips to help us hold on to them, skateboard/bicycle wheels, bicycle brakes)
  • How do we use friction in music? (e.g. between a violin bow and the strings, or fingers and musical glasses)
  • What about air and water resistance, how might they be useful?

Following on from the film:

  • Try dropping flat pieces of paper versus balled up paper, to see how air resistance affects how they fall.
  • Before they start, ask your students to make predictions, and think about the other forces acting on the paper. What if they were outside on a windy day, or if they threw it up into the air instead of dropping it?
  • You could also show this NASA video of a hammer and a feather falling at the same rate on the Moon, to see what happens when air resistance is removed.
  • You could also try building a 'paper helicopter'. Which way does it spin? Can you make it spin the other way?

This short film is suitable for teaching science at KS2 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 2nd Level in Scotland.

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Mwaksy and Greg learn about what gravity is using bottles and air rockets.

What is gravity?

Mwaksy and Greg learn what levers are, what the different parts are called, and how they work.

What are levers?

Mwaksy and Greg learn about magnets, where they come from, and where magnetic materials can be found.

What are magnets?
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