Equal & Unequal Forces Activity: 8 Hands-On Stations for Teaching Patterns of Motion and Energy Transfer (TEKS 5.7A)

Chris Kesler · 8 min read

A book on a desk. A cat on a windowsill. A parked car. Ask a 5th grader what forces are acting on any of those, and most of them will say "none, it isn't moving." That's the misconception you're about to break. Forces are acting on every single one of those things. They're just balanced, which is why nothing is moving. The minute the forces stop being balanced, something will start to roll, slide, fall, or fly.

That's TEKS 5.7A. It asks 5th graders to investigate how equal and unequal forces acting on an object cause patterns of motion and transfer of energy. They have to use the word "force" with meaning, predict what happens when forces are equal vs. unequal, and identify a pattern of motion in real life that lets them predict what comes next.

The Equal & Unequal Forces Station Lab for TEKS 5.7A hands them 20 dominoes, an orange-box scenario with newtons of force measured on every side, a sort of common objects (parked car vs. rocket launch), and a writing prompt about kicking a soccer ball harder. By the end, they can tell you which side wins a tug-of-war and why, in actual force language.

⏱ 1–2 class periods 📓 5th Grade Science 🧪 TEKS 5.7A 🎯 Built-in differentiation 💻 Print or Digital

8 hands-on stations for teaching equal and unequal forces

A station lab is a student-led activity where small groups rotate through 8 stations (plus a 9th challenge station for early finishers) at their own pace during one to two class periods. You become a facilitator instead of a lecturer. You walk around, spot-check, and break misconceptions while kids work through the rotation.

The Equal & Unequal Forces Station Lab has four input stations (where students take in new information on forces, patterns of motion, and energy transfer) and four output stations (where they show what they learned). Here's what's at each one.

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4 input stations: how students learn equal and unequal forces

🎬 Watch It! —

A short YouTube video introduces balanced and unbalanced forces with a weightlifter scene at the center. Three questions on the answer sheet check whether students caught the big ideas: what "balanced" means, how unbalanced forces change motion, and the exact moment in the weightlifter example when the forces become unbalanced. Visual learners come alive here because they can see the bar held steady, then dropped, and tie those two moments to the right vocabulary.

📖 Read It! —

A one-page passage called "Predicting Motion in Everyday Life" walks students through patterns of motion (a playground swing, a seesaw), what a force actually is (a push or pull that can start, stop, or change direction), and what happens when forces are equal vs. unequal. The arm-wrestling and seesaw examples are the anchors. Vocabulary is bolded throughout (patterns, force, energy transfer, equal forces, unequal forces). Three multiple-choice questions follow, plus the vocabulary section. Comes in two reading levels (Dependent and Modified) plus a Spanish version.

🔬 Explore It! —

This is the heart of the lab and the part 5th graders will talk about for the rest of the week. Each group lines up 20 dominoes about 2 cm apart on a flat surface. They predict what will happen, then nudge the first one and watch the chain reaction. Then they reset the dominoes 4 cm apart, predict again, and test. Eight questions tie the observations to equal vs. unequal forces, energy transfer from one domino to the next, and how spacing changes the pattern of motion. Kids who are quiet in lecture won't shut up at this station.

💻 Research It! —

Eight reference cards walk through four scenarios where boys are pushing on an orange box from different sides, with arrows showing the direction of each force. A data table shows the force in newtons on each side and the distance the box traveled. Scenario 1: 10 N from the left, 0 N from the right, box moves 4 m right. Scenario 2: 10 N from both sides, box doesn't move. Scenario 3: 5 N vs. 10 N, box moves toward the stronger force. Scenario 4: 15 N vs. 10 N, same direction shift but smaller distance because the difference is smaller. Four questions ask students to identify equal vs. unequal scenarios and tie force size to distance moved.

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4 output stations: how students show what they learned

📋 Organize It! —

A two-column card sort. Twelve everyday scenarios get matched to Equal Forces or Unequal Forces. Equal: two same-sized kids in a tug-of-war that isn't moving, a parked car, a book on a table, a cat on a windowsill, a person floating in calm water, a balance scale with equal weights. Unequal: a fan blowing papers off a desk, a rocket launching, two people pushing a stalled car with different efforts, leaves blowing in the wind, a person lifting a heavy box, a soccer ball being kicked. The parked-car and book-on-table cards are the ones to watch. Kids who still think "no movement = no forces" will misplace those.

🎨 Illustrate It! —

Students draw an example of unequal forces causing a transfer of energy and a change in motion. The sketch has to include and label the unequal forces, where the transfer of energy happens, and how the motion changes. Even kids who say "I can't draw" surprise themselves here, because force arrows are simple to draw, and labeling them is what counts. The drawings double as a study tool when they review their answer sheets later.

✍️ Write It! —

Three open-ended questions in complete sentences. First, a scenario where two friends push against each other on skateboards and neither one moves — what does that say about the forces? Second, why does a soccer ball move faster when you kick it harder? Third, a question about a girl jumping rope and how the rope's pattern of motion lets her know when to jump. The jump-rope question is the one to watch because it ties pattern of motion (the loop hitting the ground at a steady rhythm) back to prediction.

📝 Assess It! —

Three multiple-choice questions plus a fill-in-the-paragraph that uses the five Read It! vocabulary words (patterns, force, energy transfer, equal forces, unequal forces). The multiple choice covers identifying an unequal-forces scenario, what is required to change the motion of a moving object, and a prediction about a toy car rolling down a ramp. The paragraph uses a soccer-ball-kicked scenario to weave all five vocabulary words into one cohesive story. If you're grading the lab, this is the easiest station to grade.

Bonus Challenge It! station for early finishers

🏆 Challenge It! —

Four optional extensions: build a 10-card vocabulary flashcard set, analyze an outside-of-school activity (sport, hobby) by writing a paragraph that explains the force, motion, and energy transfer involved with a labeled diagram, build a balanced mobile with at least four arms that demonstrates equal forces, or design a simple experiment to test unequal forces on an object of their choice. Requires teacher approval before they start.

How this fits into a complete Equal & Unequal Forces unit

This Station Lab is the Explore day of our full Equal & Unequal Forces Complete 5E Lesson for TEKS 5.7A. The complete two-week unit follows the 5E method of instruction and includes an Engage hook, the Equal & Unequal Forces Station Lab for Explore, PowerPoint slides and interactive notebook pages for Explain, student choice projects to Elaborate, and an Evaluate assessment.

Most 5th-grade teachers grab the full 5E because the Station Lab lands hardest with the days around it. But if you just need a strong hands-on day on forces and patterns of motion, the Station Lab on its own does the job.

Two options

Full 5E Lesson $13.20 Get the 5E Lesson

Equal & Unequal Forces Station Lab cover

Just the Station Lab $7.20 Get the Station Lab

Materials needed to teach equal and unequal forces

Materials beyond what's in the download:

20 dominoes per group for the Explore It! station. Standard double-six dominoes from any dollar store or board-game shelf work fine. They don't all need to match. If you have one set of 28, two groups can split a single tin.
A flat surface per group for the dominoes (a desktop or the floor works).
A small ruler or a paper template to measure the 2 cm and 4 cm domino spacing. A printed strip of paper with marks at 2 and 4 cm is cheaper than buying 8 rulers.
Colored pencils or markers for the Illustrate It! station.
Pencils and the printed answer sheets (included)
A device with internet for the Watch It! station

Standard covered: Texas TEKS 5.7A —

Investigate and explain how equal and unequal forces acting on an object cause patterns of motion and transfer of energy.

See the full standard breakdown →

Grade level: 5th grade physical science

Time: One to two class periods (45–110 minutes total). Plan for two periods the first time you run a station lab.

Common student misconceptions this lab fixes

"If something isn't moving, there are no forces acting on it."
This is the big one for 5th grade. Kids tie "forces" to "motion" and assume that a still object has no forces on it. The Organize It! card sort blows this up. Six of the cards in the Equal Forces pile are things sitting completely still: a parked car, a book on a table, a cat on a windowsill, a person floating in water. None of those are moving, but every one of them has multiple forces acting on it (gravity pulling down, the surface or water pushing up, all balanced). The Read It! arm-wrestling example also hammers this home: two people pushing equally hard, neither moving, the forces are very real and very equal. By the time they hit the Assess It! questions, they know that "no motion" means "balanced forces," not "no forces."
"The bigger or heavier kid always wins the tug-of-war."
5th graders bring playground logic into the lab. They've seen the bigger kid drag the smaller kid across the line, so they assume size always wins. The Research It! scenarios force them to think in newtons instead of body size. Scenario 3 shows 5 N on one side, 10 N on the other, and the box moves toward the 10 N side. Scenario 4 shows 15 N vs. 10 N, same idea, smaller difference, smaller distance. The point lands: it's the size of the force, not the size of the person, that matters. Two kids the same size pulling with different strength is still unequal. Two kids of different sizes pulling with equal strength is still equal. The Organize It! card sort confirms it with "two kids of equal size playing tug-of-war with a rope that isn't moving" in the Equal Forces pile.
"Energy is what makes things move. So when something stops, the energy is gone."
5th graders often think of energy as a kind of fuel that gets used up. The Explore It! dominoes correct this beautifully. When the first domino is pushed, energy transfers from the kid's finger into the first domino, then to the second domino, then the third, all the way down the line. Each one falls because energy was transferred to it, not because energy was "used up" by the previous one. The Read It! soccer-ball example sets it up: "the energy from your moving leg and foot transfers to the ball, making it speed away." The Assess It! paragraph asks them to use the word "energy transfer" in a real soccer-ball scenario. By the end, they can say "the energy transferred from the foot to the ball," not "the foot gave the ball some energy that ran out."

What you get with this Equal & Unequal Forces activity

📷 Inside-the-product — add screenshot of Read It passage or sample answer sheet

When you buy the Station Lab, you get a single download with everything you need:

Print version at two reading levels (Dependent for on-grade, Modified for additional support) plus a Spanish Read It! passage
Digital version as PowerPoint files (works in Google Slides too) at both levels — for 1:1 classrooms or Google Classroom
Teacher Directions and Answer Key for both versions, all keys included
Station task cards ready to print, laminate, and drop in baskets at each station
Reference cards for the Research It! station (4 force-scenario diagrams with arrows showing direction of force, plus a data table in newtons and the analysis questions)
Sort cards for the Organize It! station (12 everyday scenarios sorted into Equal Forces and Unequal Forces)
Student answer sheets for each level

Tips for teaching equal and unequal forces in your 5th grade classroom

Two things make this lab go smoother the first time:

1. Buy two extra sets of dominoes.

The Explore It! station depends on 20 dominoes per group. Inevitably, a few dominoes will end up on the floor, in someone's hand, or behind a desk by the end of the period. If you started with exactly 20 per group, the last rotation gets short. Pick up two extra sets at the dollar store. Drop a few spares at the station in a small cup. When a group's count drops below 20, they grab from the cup. Keeps the rotation moving and saves you from playing search-and-rescue under chairs.

2. Use a printed spacing strip instead of asking kids to measure.

If you tell 5th graders to space dominoes 2 cm apart using a ruler, the next 10 minutes will be measuring, not predicting. Make a paper template ahead of time: a strip with marks at every 2 cm for the first run, then flip it over with marks at every 4 cm for the second run. Students set each domino on a mark. Quick, consistent, and the predictions stay the focus instead of measurement.

Get this Equal & Unequal Forces activity

Equal & Unequal Forces Station Lab for 5th grade physical science — TEKS 5.7A

Buy the Station Lab — $7.20

Or if you want the full two-week experience with the Engage hook, Explain day, Elaborate extension, and Evaluate assessment all included:

Buy the full 5E Complete Lesson — $13.20

(Station Lab is included)

Frequently asked questions

What does TEKS 5.7A cover?

Texas TEKS 5.7A asks 5th grade students to investigate and explain how equal and unequal forces acting on an object cause patterns of motion and transfer of energy. Students should be able to look at an object (a soccer ball, a domino chain, a parked car, a tug-of-war rope) and identify whether the forces on it are equal or unequal, predict the resulting motion, and describe where the energy transfer is happening.

Is this kids' first time meeting the word "force" in science?

For most 5th graders, yes, as formal vocabulary. They've used pushes and pulls all their lives, but "force" as a measurable thing (in newtons) is brand new. The Read It! passage introduces force as a push or pull. The Research It! station puts a real number in newtons on every force in every scenario. The Organize It! card sort applies it to everyday objects. By the end, they have a working vocabulary for the rest of 5.7 and the foundation for force and motion in middle school.

How long does this Equal & Unequal Forces activity take?

One to two class periods (45 to 110 minutes total). The Explore It! domino station with two rounds of setup and prediction is the longest piece, so plan for two periods the first time you run a station lab. Once your class has the rotation routine down, most groups can finish all 8 stations in one period.

Do I need a lot of supplies for this?

Just dominoes. A 28-piece set from the dollar store is enough for one group, so for a class of 30 in groups of 3, you need 5 sets, about $10 total. The Watch It! station also needs a device with internet. Everything else (paper, pencils, markers) you already have.

Can I use this in a 1:1 digital classroom?

Yes. The full digital version (PowerPoint or Google Slides) works in 1:1 classrooms and Google Classroom. Students drag digital cards at the Organize It! station and type their answers. The Explore It! domino activity is harder to digitize, but you can substitute a virtual domino-chain simulation if you don't have physical dominoes. Domino runs are also one of the best things to send home as a family-and-friends extension.