Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Exploring Acceleration Through Vectors
The goal of this activity is to get learners to think about what is happening when velocity and acceleration vectors point in different directions. The pictures, sentences, and cars used allow the students to picture each situation in...
PBS
Wgbh: Peep and the Big Wide World: Share the Day's Discoveries
Discuss classroom explorations and discoveries about ramps.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: Classroom Activities: Parachuting
This activity explores a parachutist and her position, velocity and acceleration. Graphing and calculating these functions will be required.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Red Light, Green Light
Building upon their understanding of forces and Newton's laws of motion, students learn about the force of friction, specifically with respect to cars. They explore the friction between tires and the road to learn how it affects the...
TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Tinkering With Tops
Lesson explores the history, design, and motion of spinning tops. Student teams design and build their own tops that can spin for at least 10 seconds within a circle 30 centimeters in diameter.
Other
Mattel: Hot Wheels: Speedometry
This resource is part of a two unit curriculum designed for fourth-graders using the 5E Instructional Model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate) to support students as they investigate the effect that height and other...
PBS
Wgbh: Peep and the Big Wide World: Introduce Ramps
An introductory activity where learners discover the way things roll and slide down ramps and hills.
TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Engineering Ups and Downs
Engineering design lesson examines the principles behind working elevators. Teams of students explore how elevators work, then design, build, and evaluate their own elevator to service a toy car garage.