Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Physics Motion Activities for Second Grade
A lesson plan for stations that allow students to explore how a push or pull affects motion.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Physics/mechanics (Force and Motion)
A collection of mechanics activities. Many pertain to Newton's laws of motion. Step-by-step directions provided with illustrations. Great for teacher demos or student projects.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Magical Motion
Students watch video clips from the October Sky and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movies to see examples of projectile motion. Then they explore the relationships between displacement, velocity and acceleration, and calculate...
Utah State Office of Education
Utah State Office of Education: Force, Energy, & Motion
A unit on energy, force, and motion presented with interactive and classroom activities. Students gain an understanding of weight, mass, potential and kinetic energy, sound, and heat with this engaging resource.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Analyzing Forces and Motion Graphs by Riding an Elevator
A high school physics lab on classical mechanics in which students study force versus time and acceleration versus time. Students need access to an elevator to complete the experiments. A lab handout is provided.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Investigating Forces: Balloon Car Activity
In this activity, teams of students build a car out of common materials which is then propelled by the release of air out of a balloon and must travel a minimum distance. The activity is then extended to a competition to build the car...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Investigating Motion Graphing Speed
In this introduction to motion activity, learners will get a personal understanding of speed and acceleration by experiencing it firsthand. Wheeled office chairs or other cart like devices are used to give one student a ride as a fellow...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Investigating Motion With Marbles
In this guided inquiry activity, students will use 2 marbles of different size and a box to investigate what makes the marbles move and what will cause the marbles to change speed and direction.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: A Change of Direction Exploring the Impact of Forces
Students will be able to determine a way to change the direction of a moving object by conducting a simple experiment. Included in this lesson plan are videos of the activity in action, a printable recording sheet, pictures of the set-up...
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Vectors Motion and Forces in Two Dimensions
Three complete tutorials on vectors and two dimension forces and motion. Lessons include informational text, interactive activities, animations, and quick, interactive comprehension checks along the way.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Circular Motion
In this interactive activity featuring videos adapted from the Rutgers PAER Group, students will observe examples of circular motion. Students will then find a common reason why the objects and people presented move in a circle. Includes...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Force and Motion: Gravity and Wind Resistance
Students investigate the effects of force on objects in motion particularly as it relates to gravity and wind resistance by performing a classroom egg-drop activity.
Other
Bscs: Forces Lesson 2: Representing Forces
What makes something start to move? What makes something stop moving or change direction? This hands-on lesson plan will show students that forces acting on an object have a strength and a direction that can be represented by arrows of...
My Science Site
Forces and Motion [Pdf]
This resource provides reproducibles that aide in student learning of force and motion. Also offers hands-on and cooperative learning activity ideas as well as an ESL/ELD activity. This resource is in PDF form; requires Adobe Reader.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Newton's Second Law: Constant Force Applied to a Skateboarder
In this lab activity, students will become familiar with Newton's 2nd Law of Motion. By investigating the motion of different skateboarders pulled with a variety of constant force values, they will discover that bodies acted on by a...
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: Frictional Forces
In this activity, students' will use a Dual range force sensor to measure the force required to pull a block across different surfaces. They will examine the results to see when more force is needed to move the block and understand the...
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Forces in Action
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart explains weight and gravity and engages students in activities using force and motion.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Open Course Ware: Forces: Moving Charges in Magnetic Fields
Learners investigate moving charges in magnetic fields. Some topics explored in the activities are Lorentz force, motion of a charge, and magnetic fields. The resource consists of video clips, lecture notes, online textbook chapters,...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Energy of Motion
By taking a look at the energy of motion all around us, students learn about the types of energy and their characteristics. They first learn about the two simplest forms of mechanical energy: kinetic and potential energy, as illustrated...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Centripetal Force
What keeps you in your seat of a giant loop-de-loop roller coaster? Surprisingly, it is not the seatbelt but the seat. It works because of something called centripetal force and it does much more than make a great roller coaster. In this...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc:investigating Friction:investigate How the Force of Friction Opposes Motion
In this investigation, young scholars will learn that speed, velocity, and changes in velocity are the result of the action of forces on objects such as friction. They will be able to explain how the force of friction opposes motion by...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Investigating Motion: What Causes Objects to Move?
Young scholars will have an opportunity to determine what makes everyday objects move. Students will be given objects and asked to make predictions on how far each object will move after they blow on it. Then they will measure the...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Investigating Motion: Paths of a Marble
In this activity, children will investigate the paths that marbles take once set into motion and then how to change those paths, noting if and how they change.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: Motion Pretest
Students will take a pretest to assess their knowledge about motion in a physical science class.