Test Force Effects in a System Lesson Plan (TEKS 5.7B): A Complete 5E Lesson for Designing Force Investigations

Chris Kesler · 10 min read

Tape a balloon to a straw. Thread the straw on a long piece of fishing line stretched across the room. Blow up the balloon, pinch the end, let go. The balloon zips down the line like a rocket. Every 5th grader in the room is already on their feet.

Then ask the question that turns play into science. "If you wanted your rocket to travel farther, what would you change?" Suddenly kids are throwing out ideas. Bigger balloon. Straighter string. Lighter straw. Less tape. Different angle. That's a science investigation taking shape in real time. You haven't said the word "variable" yet, and they're already designing one.

That's the heart of this 5E lesson for TEKS 5.7B. The verb in the standard is design. Kids aren't watching a demo. They're planning the test, predicting the outcome, running the trials, and figuring out what really changed the result.

⏱ 10 class periods 📓 5th Grade Physical Science 🧪 TEKS 5.7B 🎯 Differentiated for D + M 💻 Print or Digital

Inside the Test Force Effects in a System 5E Lesson

The 5E instructional model walks students through five phases: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. It flips the traditional lecture-first sequence on its head. Students explore a concept hands-on before you ever explain it, which means by the time you do explain it, they have something to hook the vocabulary onto.

I switched to the 5E model years ago and stopped going back. Kids retain more, ask better questions, and stop staring at you waiting to be told the answer. The Test Force Effects in a System 5E Lesson is built on this framework from start to finish. Here's how it plays out across the five phases.

🎯 Engage

📷 Engage image — objective slide OR word wall card

Day one is a teacher-led hands-on hook where kids get a quick taste of designing a test. A simple system (a toy car on a ramp, a balloon on a string) is set up at the front of the room. Students make observations, ask questions, and write down what they'd change to test how force affects the system. No vocabulary lecture yet. They're walking into the rest of the unit with a working idea of what "designing" a test actually means.

By the end of the period, kids have sketched a simple system on their student sheet, written their own testable question, and made a prediction. That's the seed for the next four days.

What's included in the Engage:

Teacher directions for the hands-on hook activity
Printable student observation sheet
Answer key for the discussion questions
Four learning objective slides (standard verbatim, key verbs highlighted, "I CAN...", and "WE WILL...")
An illustrated Investigation Word Wall in English and Spanish covering the full unit vocabulary

🔬 Explore

📷 Explore image 1 — wide shot of Station Lab in action

The Test Force Effects in a System Station Lab is the heart of the Explore phase. Students rotate through 8 stations (plus a 9th challenge station for early finishers) over one class period. The Station Lab is split into four input stations (where kids take in new information) and four output stations (where they show what they learned).

The four input stations:

🎬 Watch It! — Students watch a short video on designing investigations and answer guided questions.
📖 Read It! — A one-page reading passage at two differentiated levels, with a Spanish version included.
🔬 Explore It! — The hands-on car-on-a-ramp or balloon rocket activity where students test how a single variable changes the outcome.
💻 Research It! — Reference cards with variables, the scientific method, examples of testable questions, and sources of error.

The four output stations:

📋 Organize It! — A 12-card sort where students place experiment parts under independent variable, dependent variable, and controlled variables.
🎨 Illustrate It! — Students draw a labeled diagram of an investigation showing the variables, the setup, and what gets measured.
✍️ Write It! — Three open-ended questions in complete sentences (this is where you see who really gets it).
📝 Assess It! — A short formative check with multiple choice and a fill-in-the-blank vocabulary paragraph.

📷 Explore image 2 — close-up of featured station (Explore It! or Organize It!)

Print and digital versions are both included. If you want the full breakdown of what happens at every single station, what students produce, and how to set it up, that's in our dedicated Station Lab post.

→ Read the full Test Force Effects Station Lab walkthrough 8 stations, materials list, teacher tips

The Station Lab is included in the full 5E lesson. You don't need to buy it separately if you're getting the whole unit.

📚 Explain

📷 Explain image 1 — Presentation slide screenshot

Here's the real payoff of doing the Engage and Explore before the Explain: by the time kids hit this phase, they've already designed a small test with their own hands. They have a working understanding before you ever start naming things. The discussions get deeper, the questions get sharper, and you spend less time defining and more time pushing their thinking.

The Test Force Effects in a System Presentation walks 5th graders through the full scope of TEKS 5.7B, one concept at a time. The deck opens with a quick reset on what an experimental investigation is (a controlled, reliable test that helps us figure out the answer to a question about the world), and then builds out the framework: every investigation has variables, a hypothesis, a procedure, data, and a conclusion.

📷 Explain image (middle) — Presentation slide screenshot (classification hierarchy, Essential Question, or category comparison)

Students learn the three kinds of variables that show up in every experiment. The independent variable is the one thing the scientist changes on purpose. It's the "cause" in the test. The dependent variable is what changes because of the independent variable. It's the "effect," the thing the scientist measures. Controlled variables (also called constants) are everything the scientist keeps the same so the test is fair. The deck includes Quick Action drag-and-drop tasks where students physically sort variables into the right buckets.

From there the lesson covers testable questions, the kind written as "If I change this, then I can measure this." Students see real examples drawn from force-and-motion setups: How does friction affect the speed of a car? How does the size of a balloon affect the distance a balloon rocket travels? Then the deck covers hypotheses (an educated guess written as an "if...then..." statement), multiple trials (why running the same experiment more than once makes the results more reliable), and sources of error (what can go wrong and how scientists handle it).

The forces piece is woven all the way through. Kids see force examples on nearly every slide: gravity pulling a car down a ramp, friction slowing a car on sandpaper, magnetism pushing or pulling iron filings, and applied force when a person pushes or pulls something. Each force becomes a possible thing to test.

📷 Explain image 2 — Presentation slide screenshot

What makes the Test Force Effects in a System Presentation different from a typical scientific-method slideshow is that kids are doing something on almost every single slide. It's not a lecture deck. It's a participation deck. "Your answer:" prompts appear on most slides, Brain Breaks reset attention every few slides, Quick Action INB tasks (variable sorts, matching forces to definitions, designing a quick investigation from given supplies) show up throughout, and Think About It prompts push deeper with scenarios like balloon-powered cars and lamp temperature experiments. The deck closes with a Check for Understanding tied back to the Essential Questions about designing investigations and how force changes motion.

The Explain materials in this product include:

An editable Presentation at two differentiated levels (Dependent and Modified), works in PowerPoint or Google Slides
A guided fill-in-the-blank student notes handout that mirrors the Presentation, with answer key
A Paper Interactive Notebook (English and Spanish) students cut, fold, and glue into their notebooks
A Digital Interactive Notebook at both levels with answer keys, for 1:1 classrooms or Google Classroom

The Explain runs across two class periods. The built-in Think About It prompts are where the real discussion happens, so let those breathe.

🛠️ Elaborate

📷 Elaborate image — Student Choice Project board or sample student work

The Elaborate phase is where students stretch what they learned about designing investigations and put it into a project of their choosing. In this 5th grade physical science lesson, that's a Student Choice Project board with six different project options plus a "design your own" pathway.

Students might design and run their own balloon rocket experiment, build a marble-run ramp and test how angle affects the marble's speed, write up a step-by-step investigation plan for a younger student, or film a short "how to design a science experiment" tutorial. There are options for kids who love to write, kids who love to draw, kids who love to build, and kids who love to perform. Whatever the project, the point is the same: students apply variables, hypotheses, and trials to a real investigation instead of a worksheet.

Choice is the whole point. By letting students pick how they show their thinking, you get more authentic work for TEKS 5.7B and you actually get to see what they understand about designing tests.

The rubric (the part teachers actually want)

Every project, no matter which option a student picks, is graded on the same shared rubric. Five categories at 20 points each:

Vocabulary (20 pts) — At least four words from the lesson are used in context.
Concepts (20 pts) — At least two key concepts from the lesson are referenced.
Presentation (20 pts) — The project grabs attention and is well-organized.
Clarity (20 pts) — Easy to understand. Free of typos.
Accuracy (20 pts) — Drawings and models are accurate. The science is right.

Two differentiated versions in one file

The standard version is for students ready for independent application of investigation design. The Reinforcement version is for students who need additional vocabulary or concept support. Three of the six options are swapped for projects with a tighter vocabulary tie-in, and "design your own" is replaced with "collaborate with the teacher" so kids aren't pitching cold.

✅ Evaluate

The Evaluate phase wraps the unit with a formal assessment. It's not all bubble-in. Several questions hand students an experiment scenario and ask them to identify the independent variable, the dependent variable, and a controlled variable, plus explain whether the experiment is reliable.

The full assessment has 12 questions across five formats:

Multiple choice (4 questions) covering variables, testable questions, hypotheses, and reliability
Hotspot / visual (2 questions) where students circle the independent variable in a diagram and describe the dependent variable
Multiselect (2 questions) where students pick all the parts of a well-designed investigation
Short answer (2 questions) on why running multiple trials makes results more reliable
Multipart scenario (2 questions) with a classroom debate where kids identify which student's experimental design is the most reliable and why

A modified version is included for students who need additional support. Fewer multiple-choice distractors, sentence-starter scaffolds on the short-answer items.

If you've taught all five phases, this assessment shouldn't surprise anyone. It's a chance for kids to show you they get it.

How everything fits together

If you want the whole experience (Engage hook, the Station Lab as the Explore, the Explain day with Presentation and interactive notebook, the Student Choice Elaborate, and the Evaluate assessment all in one download), that's the Test Force Effects in a System Complete 5E Science Lesson.

If you only need the one-day hands-on activity, the Station Lab works as a standalone. Most teachers buy the full 5E because the Station Lab works harder when it's bookended by a strong Engage and a follow-up Explain. But both are honest options.

Two options

Test Force Effects in a System Complete 5E Lesson cover

Full 5E Lesson — ~10 class periods $13.20 Get the 5E Lesson

Test Force Effects in a System Station Lab cover

Just the Station Lab — 1–2 class periods $7.20 Get the Station Lab

What you need to teach Test Force Effects in a System (TEKS 5.7B)

Materials beyond what's in the download:

Balloons, drinking straws, fishing line or string, and tape for the balloon rocket investigations (one set per small group)
Toy cars and ramps made from cardboard, foam board, or stacked textbooks (one ramp per group)
Sandpaper or other textured paper to test friction on the ramps
Pencils, colored pencils or markers, rulers, and printed student pages
A device with internet for the Watch It! station and the slide deck

Standard covered: Texas TEKS 5.7B — Design a simple experimental investigation that tests the effect of force on an object in a system such as a car on a ramp or a balloon rocket on a string. See the full standard breakdown →

Grade level: 5th grade science

Time: About 10 class periods of 45 minutes each, done with fidelity. The product also ships with a compressed sample unit plan if you need to move faster.

Common misconceptions this lesson clears up

"You can change a bunch of things at once and still tell which one mattered"
If you change two things at the same time, you can't tell which one caused the result. If a kid makes the ramp steeper AND adds a heavier car, and the car goes faster, was it the ramp or the weight? No way to know. The whole point of designing an investigation is changing exactly one thing at a time and keeping everything else the same.
"A heavier car always rolls faster down a ramp"
Not always. On a smooth, low-friction ramp, a heavier car and a lighter car often arrive at the bottom at almost the same time because gravity pulls them down equally. The weight only matters when friction comes into play. Kids assume "heavier means faster" but the test will sometimes surprise them. That's the point of running the experiment instead of just guessing.
"The investigation is just running the experiment"
The investigation includes everything around the experiment too. You design it (decide what to test), predict what'll happen, run the trials (more than once is better), measure the results, and explain what you found. Just rolling a car down a ramp and saying "that was fun" isn't a full investigation. The thinking before and after is the science.
"If your prediction is wrong, the experiment failed"
A wrong prediction is one of the most useful results in science. It means you learned something you didn't expect. The experiment didn't fail. The prediction was just incomplete. Real scientists make wrong predictions all the time and write up what they figured out from being wrong. Tell kids that being wrong on purpose, then explaining why, is a great answer.

What's included in the Test Force Effects in a System 5E Lesson download

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

When you buy the Test Force Effects in a System Complete 5E Lesson, you get a single download with the whole unit:

✅ Engage materials — teacher directions, student observation sheet, answer key, four learning objective slides, illustrated Investigation Word Wall (English + Spanish)
✅ The full Station Lab — 8 stations + 1 challenge, print and digital, two reading levels, Spanish Read It!
✅ Explain materials — editable Presentation at two differentiated levels (with built-in Brain Breaks, Quick Action INB tasks, and Think About It prompts), guided fill-in-the-blank student notes handout with answer key, Paper Interactive Notebook (English + Spanish), Digital Interactive Notebook at two levels with answer keys
✅ Elaborate (Student Choice Projects) — 6 project options + design-your-own, plus a Reinforcement version with vocabulary-focused alternatives, rubric included
✅ Summative assessment — full 12-question version and modified version with sentence-starter scaffolds, both with answer keys
✅ Sample unit plan — day-by-day pacing guide

A couple of real-talk tips from running this lesson

1. Pick one investigation, not six.

If you try to run a ramp investigation AND a balloon rocket AND a marble-roll all in one week, kids will be drowning in materials. Pick the one that fits your room and supply closet, do it really well, then circle back to the others as enrichment.

2. Make kids write the testable question before they touch anything.

5th graders want to grab the balloons and start blowing. If they design first, they actually have a test, not just a free-for-all. Hold the supplies hostage until the question is written.

3. Run three trials. Always three.

One trial is a fluke. Two trials is a coincidence. Three trials starts to look like a pattern. The first time a group runs a trial and gets a weird result, point at it. "Was that the real answer, or did something throw it off?" That's how reliability lands.

Get the Test Force Effects in a System 5E Lesson

Buy the full Test Force Effects in a System 5E Lesson — $13.20

Or if you only need the one-day hands-on Station Lab:

Buy the Test Force Effects in a System Station Lab — $7.20

(The Station Lab is included in the full 5E Lesson)

Frequently asked questions

Does this cover all of TEKS 5.7B?

Yes. The full standard is addressed across all five phases, with the "design" verb baked into the Explore and Elaborate activities.

What do my students need to know before this lesson?

A basic understanding of forces from 5.7A or earlier grades. If your kids know what a force is and can describe motion, they're ready.

How long does it take to teach?

Done with fidelity, about 10 class periods of 45 minutes each. One day for the Engage hook, two days for the Station Lab, two days for the Presentation and Interactive Notebook, three days for the Student Choice Project, and one to two days for review and the assessment. The product also ships with a compressed sample unit plan if you need to move faster.

Do I need special supplies?

Just balloons, straws, fishing line, toy cars, and a way to make a ramp (stacked books or cardboard works fine). Most teachers already have everything on hand.

Does this work for digital classrooms?

Yes. Every component has a digital version. The Station Lab is fully digital-ready (Google Slides), the Presentation works in Google Slides, and the Student Choice Projects can be submitted as videos, slide decks, or written work.

Is this 5E lesson aligned to NGSS too?

Yes. It aligns most directly with 3-PS2-1 and the Science and Engineering Practices around planning and carrying out investigations. Built TEKS-first, but the standards overlap heavily.