Curated OER
What Floats Your Boat?
Young scholars are introduced to the concept of buoyancy. The Video used in this lesson plan demonstrates and explains the characteristics of objects that sink and float. It presents the concepts of displacement, weight, and buoyancy.
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THE PHYSICS OF MOVING THINGS (AND NOT A MOMENTUM TOO SOON!)
Students list three examples of momentum found in their local environment; describe the importance of mass and velocity on momentum; and determine what is necessary to produce the greatest amount of momentum within a particular system.
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Physics Park
Students research and design a playground for a park or school in their community. They explore the physics concepts that are present in the design and, if applicable promote their ideas to city or school officials.
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Water Pressure Experiments
Learners perform experiments measuring water pressure. They record their observations after poking holes in plastic bottles filled with water with the lids on and then off. They discover the role gravity plays in the water flow.
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Farming in the 1930's
Students research and conduct experiments with several types of simple machines. They examine levers, pulleys, inclined planes, wheels, axles, wedges and screws and then consider the physics behind "Green Eggs and Ham".
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FLIGHT FAIR
Young scholars conduct their personal investigations into paper airplane flight. Cooperative teams are formed, with students choosing the paper airplane design that they are most interested in building.
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Up, Up, and Away
Students study the concepts of speed and velocity and complete practice problems. In small groups, students fly airplanes and record time and distance traveled for each flight. They calculate the speed and velocity of their plane for...
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Ready, Set, Go!
Middle schoolers predict if the height of a ramp affect how far an object travels. They design and conduct an experiment to test their predictions. The results are recorded and a graph is created to show the relationship between ramp...
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Pulleys
Students determine how to tell the difference between a simple system and a complex pulley system. Using pulleys, students build simple pulley systems to demonstrate the mechanical advantages of pulleys.
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Inertia
Students conduct a simple inertia demonstration by spinning a hardboiled and raw egg. They push a wagon to demonstrate inertia. They explore Newton's first and second laws of motion.
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STRAINING FOR SOUND
Sixth graders use a laser along with computer microphone probeware and the appropriate software, 6th graders determine the speed of rotating objects.An audio amplifier is connected to a solar cell to change the laser light signal into a...
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A POSITIVELY NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE
Students work in cooperative learning groups to discover how Gauss's law applies to conductors and dielectric materials. They use an electroscope to detect electrostatic charge and determine location of charges during static charge.
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Making Waves, Making Music, Making Noise
Students construct "talking cans" and instruments to explain how vibration of objects produces various sounds.
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Roll with the Punches: Depression Era Machinery
Students construct models of simple and complicated machines with Legos. Then they design an experiment using the scientific method. ESE modifications included.
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Exploring Magnetic Fields
Students explore the concept that magnets attract and repel items and exert a magnetic field that can vary in strength. They see evidence of the magnetic field of a small magnet. They see that there are forces on earth which cannot be seen.
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Static Electricity 1: Introducing Atoms
Students explore webpages to research the nature of atoms, including electrons, protons, and neutrons. This activity is the first of a four-part series on static electricity. They see that static electricity involves + and - charges.
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The Center of Mass
Students determine the center of mass of two irregularly shaped objects, determine when the center of mass is inside or outside the boundaries of the object, determine when and/or why an object is stable, balanced, unstable or unbalanced.
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A Comparison of Polymeric Liquids with Newtonian Liquids
Students concretely illustrate and define a macromolecule, observe the unique behavior of polymers and relate to their knowledge of molecules, and use the scientific process to determine the difference between Newtonian and non-Newtonian...
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Forces on an Airplane and Resulting Motion
Young scholars read from a NASA Web-based textbook, then students demonstrate an understanding of the text by answering questions about the forces on an airplane and their resulting motions.
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Making Waves
Students predict and test how the effects of velocity and force of an object or air on water affect the waves created. They diagram a water park ride using their knowledge of these effects to create their desired outcomes.
Yale University
Airplane Mathematics
The history of aerodynamics is rich with experimentation and international collaboration. Author Joyce Bryant relays this dynamic past and provides math word problems using the formula of lift, the force that makes airplanes fly. She...
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Newton's Laws
Beginning with definitions of mass and foce, this excellent set of slides summarizes Newton's Laws of motion and universal bravitaions. Components of each law are explained along with examples and questions to inspire discussion. This is...
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The Uses of Radiation
No visual aids, no activities, and no demonstrations accompany this plan. What you will find, is background information for a short lecture on the use of isoptopic radiation in the medical field and in our everyday lives. Should you...
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Gravity - What is It?
There is scant information on these slides: definitions of gravity and force, and the fact that objects fall at the same speed. Two slides give learners an activity to try to demonstrate aspects of gravity. Although the activities are...