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5th grade · Science · Unit 6 of 10

Speed & Motion

Fast and slow, why things keep moving, and what changes how quickly motion changes.

What your child practices

Practices speed as the distance an object travels in a certain time, inertia (objects keep doing what they are doing until a force acts), and how mass and force affect how quickly motion changes.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 5.P3U1.4 · how balanced and unbalanced forces affect motion

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Speed is how far something travels in a certain time.
  2. An object at rest stays at rest, and a moving one keeps moving, unless a force acts on it.
  3. Friction slows moving things: a ball stops sooner on grass than on ice.
  4. In a fair test of speed, keep the track the same for every car.

Example: A snail and a cat each travel 1 m. The snail takes much longer. Which is slower? Same distance, but more time. Taking more time for the same distance means slower. Answer: the snail

Speed & Motion in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 6 of 10 in 5th grade Science, after Measuring Matter and before Gravity Pulls Down.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Arizona Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A car travels 60 km in one hour. A bike travels 15 km in one hour. Which has greater speed?

    • the car
    • the bike
    • they are the same

  2. Question 2

    To make a toy car go faster, you should push…

    • harder
    • more softly
    • in the opposite direction

  3. Question 3

    Speed is found by thinking about distance and…

    • price
    • time
    • color

  4. Question 4

    Which is easier to speed up with a push?

    • An empty cart
    • A cart full of bricks
    • A full cart

  5. Question 5

    You are in a car that suddenly stops. Your body leans forward because of…

    • cold weather
    • hunger
    • inertia

  6. Question 6

    Which object is moving at constant speed?

    • A ball being dropped and speeding up
    • An elevator moving 1 floor every 2 seconds the whole way
    • A car braking

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