Curated OER
Baseball Activity: Bouncing Balls
Students explore the concept of motion. In this hands-on physics instructional activity, students examine how the construction of baseballs and the temperature they are stored at affect their bounce.
Wind Wise Education
What Causes Wind?
Through watching several classic air pressure demonstrations, middle schoolers determine that high pressure areas move toward lower pressure areas, heated air causes a drop in pressure, and forces exist when pressures are unequal. By...
Curated OER
Newton's Laws and Rocketball
Students investigate Newton's Three Laws. In this Newton's Law activity, students write the laws in their own words. Students then do an experiment with a ping pong ball. Students drop the ball from a set distance and record their...
Curated OER
Bouncing off the Walls
Third graders compare the bouncing height of different types of balls. In this science activity, 3rd graders explain the importance of repeated experimentation in science. They record their result and share them with the class.
Curated OER
TIMS, The Bouncing Ball: Math, Science, Measurement, Graphs, Variables
Pupils determine the exact relationship between the height from which a ball is dropped and the distance that it rebounds.
Curated OER
Bounce Back Ball
Fifth graders work in teams of four to measure the rebound heights of a tennis ball dropped from four different heights. They investigate with the bouncing balls to measure changes in the type of energy they possess.
Curated OER
The Floating Golf Ball
Young scholars explore density by floating golf balls. They explore having their golf balls float halfway in a container of water and discuss density and its realtionship to where the golf balls are floating. After adding food coloring,...
DiscoverE
Shake It Up with Seismographs
Shake up your lessons on earthquakes. A simple seismograph lets scholars record "earthquakes" in the classroom. These earthquakes occur when classmates drop balls from different heights. Young scientists measure these with seismographs...
Mr Gym
Speedball
This is not your typical soccer activity. The basic rules of soccer are used with some flag football adaptations thrown in. When the ball is on the ground, play by the standard soccer rules, but when the ball goes into the air, a player...
Curated OER
Tennis Ball Prints
Students experiment using abstract art techniques, tennis balls, and tempera paint in this excellent, outdoor art activity for the early-elementary classroom. The resulting art prints can be displayed predominantly in the classroom.
Curated OER
Super Sonar
In this echo lesson plan, students create echos using rubbers balls and a chair to simulate animals finding out where they are. Students follow 3 sets of directions and answer 2 questions.
Curated OER
Superball Physics
Eighth graders bounce superballs and measure to see if they can hit the same spot over and over. In this superball lesson plan, 8th graders calculate the weight of the ball with the force of the throw to try and hit the same spot with...
Curated OER
Impulse, Momentum, and the Conservation of Momentum
What happens when two worlds collide? In the first of several activities, future physicists experiment with colliding ball bearings or Newton's cradle. Another activity requires the use of an air track with cars to examine collision....
Curated OER
Unit IX: Worksheet 1 - Impulsive Force
Bouncing balls and rockets taking off provide ammunition for your physics arsenal. Your class will solve mulit-step problems for velocity, momentum, and force. This is an ideal homework assignment for practice solving motion problems.
Curated OER
Basketball Rebounds
Your young basketball players will build a table and develop a general formula for a decaying exponential scenario involving the rebound distance of a bouncing ball. Using a CBR and graphing calculator can make this even more hands-on...
Chemistry Collective
Inelastic Collisions
That's the way the ball bounces ... if the bonds cooperate! Young scholars use a simulation experiment to explore the bonds between atoms in bouncing balls. They adjust the bond strength of two balls to compare the reactions after the...
Curated OER
May the Force be with You -- All about Force and Gravity
Here is a fabulous set of teacher's notes that will make your next hands-on gravity and force lab fun and interesting. These notes provide you with three activities that allow children to make and test hypothesis regarding force,...
Curated OER
No Racket Tennis
Students explore scoring and positioning of players on a tennis court during a game of tennis. after learning the basics behind the game, students will stand on a court and throw a ball back and forth to practice their positioning. This...
DiscoverE
Extreme Trampolines
You'll bounce off the walls with glee after finding a fun resource. Young engineers design trampolines for golf balls. They build and test out their design and make improvements based on the results.
Exploratorium
Falling Feather
Whether or not Galileo actually dropped balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, this demonstration will solidly demonstrate that objects are accelerated at the same rate, regardless of mass. You will, however, need a vacuum pump and a few...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Jump! An Exploration into Parametric Equations
Explore parametric equations in this lesson, and learn how to determine how much time it takes for an object to fall compared with an object being launched. high scoolers will use parametric equations to follow the path of objects in...
NASA
Cleaning Water
From their sweat to the water vapor in their breath, astronauts recycle every possible drop of water while in space. After watching a short video describing the different ways materials are recycled and reused in space shuttles, young...
US Department of Agriculture
Sink or Float?
Will it sink or will it float? Learners predict the outcome as they drop random objects into a container of water. Then, they keep track of the results and record the data in a t-chart to draw a final conclusion.
Curated OER
Nature of Game Balls
Fourth graders see how, when balls are dropped from the same height, mass and size affects the motion of the balls.