Friction Forces | FREE Physics Reading Comprehension Passage & Questions

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Friction forces explain why shoes grip floors, bike brakes stop wheels, and rockets need heat shields, so mastering this topic builds core understanding for NGSS MS-PS2 and HS-PS3. A focused reading passage with questions helps students connect friction to everyday motion, energy transfer, wear, and efficiency using clear examples like sliding vs rolling, tire tread patterns, and sports equipment. Scaffolded questions move from vocabulary and recall to cause and effect, and explanation using evidence, strengthening science literacy as well as problem solving. This approach streamlines planning and equips students to analyze real situations where friction is helpful or harmful, from safe walking to conserving energy in machines.

This friction forces science article provides the perfect grab and go, print and provide resource that can help your students learn all about friction forces. For digital, you can provide a Google doc copy for ease of submission or a Microsoft word version as well. In this friction forces article with questions to check comprehension and inspire scientific thinking.

THIS FRICTION FORCES ARTICLE CAN BE USED SO MANY WAYS:

Useful for substitute (sub) teaching
To extend students
To increase scientific literacy in your class
A weekly reading task
Great as a lesson filler when class goes too fast
To inspire students on a particular topic
Give a selection of these articles for students to choose from

WHAT'S INCLUDED IN THIS FRICTION FORCES ARTICLE:

3 page Word doc teacher version with answers
2 page Word doc student version with room to fill in answers (text boxes)
3 page PDF teacher version with answers
2 page PDF student version without answers (but space left to do so)
3 page Google doc teacher version with answers
2 page Google doc student version with room to fill answers (text boxes)

WANT MORE AMAZING ARTICLES LIKE THIS FRICTION FORCES ARTICLE? MANY ARE AVAILABLE!

I am very proud of this series of science articles and they are rich with information and wonder at the majesty of science. Each science article includes a fun fact(s) to add to the knowledge gained from this article. Formatted in an easy to read and digest manner, each paragraph is numbered to help with referencing and each question answer has a paragraph reference number to point to the specific information (where applicable).