Newton's 3 Laws of Motion - The Science of Disney Imagineering (DVD)

Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion: The Science of Disney Imagineering

Elk Grove Village, IL: Disney Educational Productions, 2009.  1597532428

Quantitative Reading Level:  

This is designed for grades 5-8 based on the National Science Education Standards

Qualitative Reading Analysis:

I would rate this as Middle High on the “Text Complexity: Qualitative Measures Rubric for Informational Text”.  Honestly whenever the informational text is discipline specific or academic you will have to classify the text as Middle Low or higher.  For my students (5^th graders) the language would not be as familiar.  If this video was viewed at the junior high in 7^th or 8^th grade one might be able to classify this as Middle Low instead of Middle High.

Summary:

 

In this video the host discusses the scientific concepts of force, gravity, velocity, acceleration, mass, momentum, inertia, and all three of Newton’s Laws.  To do this he uses demonstrations, drawings, and specific examples from various rides at Disney parks and resorts.  What is nice about this video is that he uses several rides and attractions to model the concepts so students get several opportunities to be exposed to and learn the material.

Content Area: Science - Physics

Curriculum Suggestions:

This video would be a good tie-in with a study of physics.  It includes force and motion, Newton’s Laws, and good old Disney fun.

This video could be used before, during, or after instruction and could be great for a discussion starter.  In addition, students could be encouraged to find examples of Newton’s Laws in their own lives – at home, at a nearby amusement park, at school, and so on.

Personal Thoughts:

I always loved teaching Newton’s Laws before doing Simple Machines.  There are several videos I would use as discussion starters and so kids could really visualize the laws at work.  I always like Bill Nye and there were others as well.  The nice part about this one is the Disney aspect and the “young” host.  I think the students would enjoy this.  

High Interest Annotation:  Who wouldn’t want to learn physics with Disney?