American Institute of Physics
The Black Scientific Renaissance of the 1970s-90s: African American Scientists at Bell Laboratories
A two-part lesson plan asks young scientists to research the contributions of African American scientists at Bell Laboratories. After presenting their findings, class members watch two demonstrations that introduce them to total internal...
Open Oregon Educational Resources
Hydraulics and Electrical Control of Hydraulic Systems
It's all systems go for learning about hydraulic systems. An eBook provides a set of videos and exercise questions for a semester-long course on hydraulics. Six units introduce hydraulics, Pascal's law, hydraulic applications, flow...
US Department of Energy
The Ring Fling Machine
Class members build a machine to demonstrate Lenz's law and help this scientific principle come to life. After building a ring fling machine, instructions for properly operating the machine and a few thought-provoking questions lead to...
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Lines on Paper - Laser Box
See what you cannot see by getting a little creative. An intriguing lesson has learners use lasers to explore X-ray diffraction. Given a box with unknown structures, they shine a laser through the box and interpret the results....
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Synthesis and Characterization of CdSe Quantum Dots
Does the size of a sample change the physical properties of that substance? It turns out it can! Young scientists combine physics and chemistry to synthesize CdSe quantum dots and record their color properties. Learners should notice a...
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...
Concord Consortium
Collisions and Kinetic Energy
Can your physical science classes describe what happens when two objects collide? Whether they are new to the study of kinetic energy or just brushing up on their skills, pupils can observe the outcome of a variety of collisions using a...
PHET
Gas Properties
We can't see most gases and we can't see things at the molecular level — but that's about to change! A simulation shows pupils the activity of molecules in a gas. The simulation allows scholars to vary the volume, heat, and gravity in a...
PhET
Balloons and Static Electricity
Like all electricity, static electricity flows at the speed of light, or 186,282 miles/second. The interactive simulation shows how like charges repel like charges and opposites attract. The user can choose either one or two balloons, a...
Urbana School District
Energy, Work, Simple Machines
The tension of the 236 strings in a grand piano exert a combined force of 20 tons on the cast iron frame. The presentation includes topics such as work, forms of energy, conservation of energy, gravitational and elastic potential energy,...
Urbana School District
Forces
Is your class struggling with Newton's Second Law? Then show them a presentation that covers everything physics scholars need to know about forces. Starting with gravity, the slides focus on Newton's Laws of Motion, and end with an...
Urbana School District
Magnetism
The compass was first used in 206 B.C., but we didn't discover magnetic poles until 1263 A.D. Presentation begins with the history of magnetism before continuing on to magnetic fields, magnetic forces, electromagnets, currents,...
Urbana School District
Electric Fields
What kind of pears do electricians eat? Amperes! Presentation begins with electric field vectors for various charge configurations and field strengths for both point charges and uniform fields. It continues with various surfaces,...
Urbana School District
Electrostatics
Why did lightning shock the man? Because it didn't know how to conduct itself. Presentation covers electric charges, insulators, conductors, electroscopes, lightning, generators, grounding, static electricity, and more. Presentation is...
Urbana School District
Optics
Don't worry, optics is a light topic! The presentation covers reflection, refraction, fiber optics, mirages, prisms, rainbows, dispersion, mirrors, lenses, telescopes, diffraction, the human eye, and much, much more. Presentation is the...
Urbana School District
Light
You matter, unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light ... then you energy. Presentation covers the behavior of light as both a wave and a particle, light versus sound, space travel, why objects have colors, depth perception,...
Urbana School District
Sound
Beautiful music doesn't just write itself, but if you ever feel bad about procrastinating, remember that Mozart wrote the overture to Don Giovanni the morning it premiered. Introduce young scientists to the elements of sound including...
Urbana School District
Waves
What is a physicist's favorite part of sports? Doing the wave. The presentation covers longitudinal, transverse, surface, and standing waves. It includes in-depth information on frequency, wavelength, period, amplitude, reflection,...
Urbana School District
Fluids
In 1879, Sir William Crookes discovered the fourth state of matter, plasma. The presentation covers states of matter, phase changes, density, pressure Pascal's Principle, buoyant force, Archimedes' Principle, Bernoulli's Principle,...
Urbana School District
Thermodynamics
Entropy, it isn't what it used to be. Presentation includes kinetic-molecular theory, heat and internal energy, thermal equilibrium, temperature scales, laws of thermodynamics, entropy, latent heat of fusion, specific heat, calorimetry,...
Urbana School District
Momentum
Here's a presentation that not only covers momentum, impulse, conservation of momentum in both one and two dimensions, angular momentum, torque, and the moment of inertia, but offers many applied guided practice problems as well.
Urbana School District
Gravitation
Introduction your class to famous astronomers with a presentation that also covers Newton's Laws of Gravitation, Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion, both uniform and nonuniform gravitational fields, and how to calculate the gravitational...
Urbana School District
Vectors
I don't always make vector jokes, but when I do, IJK. Vector addition using multiple methods, scalar multiplication, vector subtraction, vector components, relative velocities, free body diagrams, and so much more Are covered in this...
Urbana School District
Physics Intro, Kinematics, Graphing
Some consider physics the branch of science concerned with using long and complicated formulas to describe how a ball rolls. This presentation, while long, is not complicated, yet it covers rolling, falling, and more. It compares vectors...