Curated OER
The Physics of Flight
Three activities allow young flight engineers to understand the 4 principles of flight (weight, lift, thrust, and drag), to construct a glider, and to create a propeller. Multicultural history and literature are integrated by reading...
Curated OER
The Physics of Flight
Students discuss how the invention of flight changed the way people live today. In groups, they compare and contrast the differences between weight, lift, thrust and drag. Using these principles, they create a glider and propeller with...
Curated OER
Weight Training: Lifetime Fitness
Learners research the relationship between physical activity and the prevention of illness, disease and premature death. Students understand that working out regularly will increase muscular strength, endurance and improve many areas of...
PBS
Blowin’ in the Wind
Wind energy is making a comeback recently, and classes will want to take part! A hands-on lesson asks groups to build their own windmill that will lift a cup with varying weight. They use their windmill designs to experiment with angles,...
Curated OER
Blow-and-Go Parachute
Learners design a skydiver and parachute constraption to demonstrate how drag caused by air resistance slows the descent of skydivers as they travel back to Earth. They experience how gravity pulls the skydiver toward the earth and how...
Curated OER
What Makes Airplanes Fly?
Students examine force and conduct activities that model parachutes and helicopters. In this airplanes lesson students identify the forces that make airplanes fly higher and land.
Curated OER
Weight Lifter - An Air Pressure Experiment
First graders participate in a study of air pressure in which the investigate if air has the strength to lift heavy objects. They work in teams to develop a hypothesis about whether air in bags would be able to lift a stack of books....
Purdue University
Healthy Body Image: A Lesson Plan for Middle School Students
This is a very valuable lesson for middle schoolers on the importance of maintaining a healthy body image through diet, exercise, and positive mentality. The resource includes four lesson plans. The first two plans outline the physical...
Curated OER
TE Activity: Pulley'ing Your Own Weight
Students experiment with common objects such as spools, string and soap to determine how pulleys make it easier to move large objects. They look at the difference between fixed and movable pulleys. They examine the many uses engineers...
Curated OER
The Way Levers Work
Fifth graders discover the rules by which the lever slants and balances. They determine that there are a great many tools that employ the lever principle even in their ordinary environments. They consider how to use objects easily...
Curated OER
Volume and Mass: Identify the Attribute
Students rotate through five studying stations related to the attributes of volume and mass. They manipulate objects to explore mass, compare two masses by pushing and lifting, pack materials and fill containers, and pour liquids from...
Curated OER
Hanging Around
Learners explore weight by building a spring scale and observing how it responds to objects with different masses. Each team of students can make their own spring scale by following steps which are specifically outlined in the plan. As...
Curated OER
Egyptians as Engineers
Student design and build Lego vehicles that drag given amount of weight up an incline. They show how this demonstrates Egyptian methods of pyramid construction.
Curated OER
Designing Windmills
Students study mechanical engineering and how it plays a part in the creation of windmills. They design and test their own windmills using various materials and sail designs.
Curated OER
The Electromagnetic Crane
Students explore electromagnetism, simple machines and the design process. They use the concepts of electromagnetism to design and build a device that uses an electromagnet, a pulley and a lever using the provided Engineering Design...
Curated OER
What is Work?
Students investigate the connection between work, potential energy, kinetic energy, and heat. In this physics lesson, students use pulleys to produce mechanical advantages and incline planes to demonstrate energy conversion.