Keep this beat light. Do not lay out the full investigation kit yet. The only prop you need, if you want one, is a dry shoe and a wet cloth to hold up while you ask the question.

Key questions: Where have your feet slipped? Where have they gripped well? Have you noticed GAA boots, wellies or trainers gripping differently?

Surface prior ideas: some pupils may say rough things always grip more, or that heavier things always stick. Note ideas without correcting yet.

Differentiation: invite quieter pupils with a simple choice first (carpet or tiles?) before open reasons.

Teach friction and grip before the kit comes out. Hold fair comparison until the planner step so it lands with the cards. Project only the short board text. Use the table below for your own reference and for the language you revoice.

While you ask the prediction, hold up one sample of each surface (or point clearly to four samples laid at the front) so the names are real objects, not a word list. Take a quick hands-up vote; do not correct guesses yet.

Bridge for a sharp question: the same rubbing that makes the shoe hard to start also slows it once it is sliding. Today we compare grip by how hard it feels to get the shoe started. The board text already names this; revoice it if a pupil asks why we are not timing a slide.

Misconception to head off: friction is not a magnet or a sticky glue. It is the rubbing between surfaces. Rough surfaces often grip more, but the fair test will let the evidence speak.

Nature of STEM weave: people have always needed grip, long before the word friction was common. Think of hobnail boots on wet Irish roads, studs on GAA boots, and grit put on icy footpaths in winter. Engineers choose surfaces on purpose so things stop or hold when we need them to.

Worked example to model later (full cycle, one surface only): I wonder which surface grips most. I predict the sandpaper will grip most because it feels rough. I test by looping the elastic band around the loaded shoe and pulling steadily on carpet until the shoe just starts to move, feeling how hard that pull is. I observed that on carpet I had to pull quite hard. I think carpet has a fair bit of grip, so next we will compare it with the other surfaces the same way.

Before the Lesson

• Open the fair-test-planner interactive on the IWB (the platform provides it).
• Have the Investigation Journal pages ready to print; hand them out at the start of the drag step so groups can write a prediction and easy/medium/hard marks during the pulls.

Driving the interactive

Drive the interactive yourself. Pupils call out placements. First name the three bins in kid language as on the board: Change = what we swap; Measure = what we notice or feel; Keep the same = what we leave alone. Then name the four cards exactly as they appear: the surface, how hard it feels to pull, the loaded shoe, how we pull.

If someone thinks Measure must mean a number or a ruler, revoice: today our measure is the pull we feel — easy, medium or hard.

Target placement to guide toward:

• Change: the surface
• Measure: how hard it feels to pull
• Keep the same: the loaded shoe; how we pull

Narrate each keep-the-same aloud. If the weight inside the shoe changed, a harder pull might mean a heavier load, not a grippier surface. If one group yanked and another pulled gently, the ranks would not be fair.

Lock the puller: because the measure is how hard the pull feels, the same pupil must pull on every surface in that group (or each pupil completes all four surfaces and records their own ranks). Do not let different children take different surfaces. Name this when you place how we pull in Keep the same: same person, same slow steady style, every time.

Bounded pupil choice: the class agrees the structure together. Groups later choose the order of surfaces, but not who pulls mid-test and not a brand-new variable. This revisits fair testing with tight scaffolding.

Look-fors: pupils can say in their own words what would make the test unfair (different shoes, different weights, a sudden yank on one surface only, swapping the puller halfway).

Kit check and room layout (decide before pupils arrive)

Count complete surface sets. Parallel timing needs one full set per group laid side by side on a clear floor patch, plus the loaded shoe and elastic for that group.

If you are short of sets or floor space, switch the plan now — do not discover it mid-lesson:

• Option A (preferred fallback): sequential stations — two or three groups test at a time on shared full sets; other groups sit close, watch, and whisper what they would predict for the next surface. Budget about 8–10 minutes per rotation and drop the towel so each group tests three surfaces if time is tight.
• Option B: keep four surfaces but only half the class tests hands-on while partners record; then swap roles on a second short round.

Shared sandpaper/towel passed around a full class, or one carpet/tile spot for everyone, is not an equivalent full-class parallel activity in 18 minutes.

Setup

Hand out the Investigation Journal page at the start of this step (prediction and easy/medium/hard marks go here; ranks come in the next step). Lay the four surfaces side by side at each group's spot when running full parallel sets.

Group prediction first (about 2 minutes)

Before any pulling, each group agrees which surface will grip most and why, and writes that short prediction on the journal page. This is the prediction they will check later — not only the whole-class teaser from the board.

Model the full cycle (2–3 minutes)

Think aloud on one surface only (carpet is ideal):

• I wonder which surface will grip most.
• I predict sandpaper, because it feels rough under my hand.
• I test by looping the elastic on the loaded shoe and pulling slowly and steadily until the shoe just begins to slide.
• I observed that on carpet I needed a fairly strong pull — I write medium or hard next to carpet now.
• I think carpet has quite a lot of grip, so we will compare the others the same way.

Then release groups to test all four surfaces.

During the investigation

Circulate and coach steady pulls, not yanks. Remind groups: same shoe, same weight still inside, same elastic, same slow pull, same puller on every surface.

Non-puller job (say this aloud when you release groups): watch the pull, then after each surface the whole group — puller and watchers — agrees easy, medium or hard and writes it beside that surface name before moving on. Every pupil uses that shared call when they rank later.

Watching another group is real science talk: ask nearby watchers, Do you think their pull looks the same each time? What would you predict for the towel?

What to expect: tile usually feels easiest (least grip). Sandpaper or carpet often feels hardest. Towel can surprise pupils if it bunches or grips more than they guessed. Treat surprises as useful data, not mistakes.

Safety: pull away from faces and feet; mind fingers under the shoe; no elastic bands aimed at anyone.

Differentiation: less confident groups use three surfaces only (drop towel). Confident groups may repeat each surface twice and check the feel mark matches.

This is the careful observation and paper record beat. Journals should already be out from the drag step with prediction and easy/medium/hard marks. Pupils turn those marks into a clear rank order (1 = most grip, 4 = least grip, or a simple most-to-least list). Ranks first from the written feels; optional why-sentence only after.

Prompts while they work:

• Which surface did you mark hardest?
• Which did you mark easiest?
• Was your group's prediction right, partly right, or different?

Common issue: groups argue because one person yanked on sandpaper, or because they never wrote the feels down. If marks are missing, invite one calm re-test of the disputed pair with you watching the pull (same puller) and write the feel before ranking. If ranks clash inside a group that did mark, check they all used the same shared call.

Do not describe columns or boxes on the journal page. Say what to record (surface and grip rank from the feel marks), not where the page puts it.

Support: sentence starter on the board for anyone stuck: Most grip: … Least grip: …