Forces in the Real-World Activities for Middle School Science

The Kesler Science Forces in the Real-World 5E Lesson is a comprehensive unit designed to help middle school students identify and explain forces such as gravity, friction, magnetism, applied, and normal forces through real-world applications. This fully editable, low-prep lesson includes presentations, worksheets, student-choice projects, and assessments for differentiated, student-led learning.

The lesson follows the 5E Model, starting with engaging discussions and activities. The hands-on, student-led station lab provides multimodal learning, including experiments, reading passages in English and Spanish, research tasks, videos, and interactive activities. Students demonstrate their understanding through categorization, writing, illustrations, assessments, and challenge stations.

Explanation materials include editable PowerPoints in standard and interactive formats, digital and printable interactive notebooks, and note-taking templates. Elaboration offers student-choice projects on forces, while evaluation includes STAAR 2.0-aligned assessments, review questions, and worksheets for discussion or test practice.

The lesson is fully adaptable for in-class or virtual learning, with materials carefully aligned to the 2021 TEKS 6.7A standard. Spanish translations are included for key components, ensuring accessibility for diverse learners.

Engage your middle school students with this student-led station lab aligned to TEKS 6.7A. This interactive lesson explores real-world forces, including gravity, friction, magnetism, applied forces, and normal forces, through nine differentiated, multimodal stations.

Students encounter new concepts through hands-on experiments, videos, readings, and research activities. They demonstrate understanding by organizing information, illustrating models, writing responses, and completing assessments. A challenge station provides extension activities for advanced learners. English and Spanish reading passages support differentiated learning. 

Designed for both in-class and virtual learning, this low-prep, high-engagement resource fosters independent learning and critical thinking.

The Forces in the Real-World Student Choice Projects align with the 2021 TEKS standard 6.7A, allowing middle school students to select a project that suits their preferred output style. A project page outlines six student-led options plus a “design your own” project, with an editable rubric for teacher, peer, or self-assessment. This resource is also included in the Forces in the Real-World Complete Lesson for TEKS 6.7A.  

These flexible, multimodal projects provide students with creative ways to demonstrate their understanding. Teachers can modify the rubric to fit their grading needs, and two versions of the project page support differentiation—offering modified options for students needing remediation and challenge opportunities for advanced learners.  

The projects use standard classroom supplies like paper, markers, and scissors, and many options can be completed digitally.