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Webquest · 8th Grade Physical Science · S8P3.a, S8P3.b, S8P3.c

Forces and Motion Webquest

Speed, Motion Graphs, Acceleration and Newton's Laws

Work through the stops in order. Each button opens in a new tab: finish that stop, answer on your webquest sheet, then come back to this page for the next one.

Start with Stop 1 ↓For teachers ↓
Students

How it works

1. Get your sheet

Your teacher gives you the webquest sheet (paper or digital). Every answer goes on it.

2. Open each stop in order

Each stop opens in a new tab. Use the sliders and buttons on that page — your answers come from what you see.

3. Come back here

Close the tab, tick Done, and open the next stop. Finished early with a partner? Play the bonus.

The webquest

Stops

  1. Stop 1 · about 12 min · your sheet: page 2, questions 1–6

    Forces & Motion Unit Intro

    Read The Bus Lurch, pick a big question, play two activities.

    Open Stop 1 The Bus LurchBig questionsExplore activities
  2. Stop 2 · about 8 min · your sheet: page 3, questions 7–15

    Simple Science Videos: Motion Graphs and Newton's Laws of Motion

    Watch two one-minute videos and fill in the blanks.

    Open Stop 2
  3. Stop 3 · about 10 min · your sheet: page 4, question 16

    Vocabulary

    Flip the Word Wall cards and define 14 words.

    Open Stop 3 Word Wall (unit intro)Forces and motion vocabulary
  4. Stop 4 · about 13 min · your sheet: page 5, questions 17–24

    Forces & Motion Part A: Describing Motion and Motion Graphs

    Ride the bus, take the walk, read two graphs segment by segment.

    Open Stop 4 Part 1: Describing motionPart 2: Motion graphs
  5. Stop 5 · about 13 min · your sheet: page 6, questions 25–31

    Forces & Motion Part B: Acceleration and Newton's First Law

    Drive the dot-trail car, push a box, flick the coin, slide a puck.

    Open Stop 5 Part 3: AccelerationPart 4: Newton's first law
  6. Stop 6 · about 13 min · your sheet: page 7, questions 32–40

    Forces & Motion Part C: F = ma and Newton's Third Law

    Launch carts, build an argument, push off two skaters.

    Open Stop 6 Part 5: Newton's second lawPart 6: Newton's third law and net force
  7. Stop 7 · about 13 min · your sheet: page 8, questions 41–44

    Virtual Lab Bench: Motion Grapher and Push It! Force Lab

    Drive a rover and read its graph, then push crates on ice.

    Open Stop 7 Motion GrapherPush It! Force Lab
  8. Wrap-up · your sheet: page 8, questions 45–46

    Wrap-up: Solve The Bus Lurch

    Go back to the hook at the top of the unit intro and explain, with Newton's first law, why your body goes forward when the bus brakes even though nothing pushed you.

    Open The Bus Lurch
  9. Bonus · for partners who are both finished

    Bonus: 1v1 8th Grade Forces

    1. Only when you and a partner have both finished every stop.
    2. One computer, two players: Red uses the W A S D keys and Blue uses the arrow keys. It needs a keyboard, so it will not work on a phone.
    3. Press Enter the Arena, pick a game, and play to 3 wins.
    Open the 1v1 game
Teachers

For teachers

Post this link for your students

https://www.tobinscience.com/webquest-8th-motion.html

Students move through six free tobinscience.com resources in order: the Forces & Motion unit intro (The Bus Lurch hook, Motion Graph Matcher, Force Lab), two one-minute Simple Science videos (Motion Graphs, Newton's Laws of Motion), the unit vocabulary, the full Forces and Motion section (Parts 1–6: the reference-point bus ride, the distance-displacement walk, the speed calculator, two graphs read segment by segment, the graph story machine, the dot-trail car, forces on a box, the card-and-coin trick, a puck on four surfaces, the force lab and its same-acceleration challenge, a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning builder, an investigation, action-reaction pairs and two skaters pushing off), two Virtual Lab Bench labs (Motion Grapher, Push It! Force Lab) and a 1v1 review game for early finishers. Every answer comes from what the page shows, matching S8P3.a through S8P3.c.

S8P3.a, S8P3.b, S8P3.c · S8P3. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about cause and effect relationships between force, mass, and the motion of objects. (a) Analyze and interpret data to identify patterns in the relationships between speed and distance, and velocity and acceleration. (b) Construct an explanation using Newton's Laws of Motion to describe the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object. (c) Construct an argument from evidence to support the claim that the amount of force needed to accelerate an object is proportional to its mass (inertia).
Time: about 80–85 minutes (two 45-minute periods, or one block)

What students need

  • One Chromebook or computer per student (the 1v1 bonus needs a keyboard and two students on one computer)
  • Headphones, or low volume, for the two one-minute videos at Stop 2
  • No student accounts or sign-ins; nothing to install

Every stop at a glance

Good to know

  • The intro rounds, the practice scores, the Mystery Runner's speed and the Mystery Crate's mass are randomized, so those answers vary. Every simulation readout (bus ride, walk, calculators, the robot and train graphs, dot trail, forces on a box, puck, force lab, investigation data, skaters) is fixed and matches the key.
  • Stop 1 activities award newtons that are saved only on that device; students write their score on the sheet.
  • The puck distances in Stop 5 come from a running simulation: accept 1.1–1.2 m on carpet, 3.0–3.1 m on wood and 38–39 m on ice.
  • In Stop 7 the Lab Bench shows a progress code when a lab is done; the verify tool on the Lab Bench page checks it.
  • The 1v1 bonus is for pairs who have both finished: head-to-head review of the whole unit.
  • The page also has endless mixed practice (Part 7, a good warm-up the next day), worked examples (8), real-life cards (9), myths (10), the whole-unit practice set and law sort (11) and the vocabulary cards (12, used at Stop 3).
  • Short on time? Stops 1–3 make a good first day and Stops 4–7 a second day.
  • The printable student webquest and its answer key come with the Word / PDF webquest download. This page holds no answers, so it is safe to post.