PBS
Pbs Learning Media: The Ruff Ruffman Show: Bottle Cap Hockey
Explore sports science and see how many points can you score with your bottle caps in Ruff's take on table hockey.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: The Ruff Ruffman Show: Build It Up, Knock It Down
Explore structural science and compete in a building contest where each team builds a structure without using tape and then tries to knock the other one down using only paper.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: The Ruff Ruffman Show: Tower Time
Explore structural science and try to stack a tall, stable tower in this building activity.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: The Ruff Ruffman Show: Architecture Scavenger Hunt
Explore structural science and look for shapes around your school or in the buildings in your neighborhood.
PBS
Wgbh: Peep and the Big Wide World: Down the Slide
Take the students out to the playground so they can explore things that go down the slide.
PBS
Wgbh: Peep and the Big Wide World: Steep and Steeper
Students explore what happens to a rolling object when the steepness of the ramp is increased.
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...
American Association of Physics Teachers
Com Padre Digital Library: Open Source Physics: Falling Slinky Model
A model of a slinky consisting of a string of twenty masses connected by springs. When the slinky is released, it falls and retracts in a series of movements. The motion of the slinky can be explored by moving the masses to different...
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
Fearof Physics: Videos
Looking for some more explanantion on a topic covered in physics class? This site contains videos that explore some physics concepts. Videos are broken down by topics. Some videos also give examples on how to solve problems.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Spinning Blackboard
Explore the effects of drawing in a straight line within a rotating frame of reference. This activity requires a turntable. If this is unavailable, a cake turntable with a glued-on center post might work as well.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Newton's Laws: Elevator Ride Interactive
Have you ever felt that queasy feeling in a moving elevator? Explore the physics behind the sensations of weightlessness and weightiness. Teacher notes and a downloadable handout are also provided.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: How Far?
To learn how friction affects motion, students explore how different textures provide varying amounts of friction to objects moving across them. They build a tool to measure the amount of friction between a note card and various surfaces...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Mechanics Mania
Through ten lessons and numerous activities, students explore the natural universal rules engineers and physicists use to understand how things move and stay still. Together, these rules are called "mechanics." The study of mechanics is...
Concord Consortium
Concord Consortium: Spring and Mass Model
An interactive tool where students can explore how a spring behaves, and how changing the elasticity, mass, push/pull force, and friction affect its motion or period. As the spring moves, its motion is shown on a distance-time graph.
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Balloon & Straw Experiment
Investigate air pressure, motion and the forces of air currents using a bendy straw, a balloon and a rubber band.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Do Submarines Need Fins?
In this science project, you can investigate how submarines use stabilizing fins to move forward. Exploring friction and buoyant force you will get closer to understanding how these large ships function. Research resources are included...
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...
Other
Physics Quests
This resource links to many web-based activities which allow students to explore and examine physic principles and concepts on their own. Links to other good physics sites are also here.
Other
Focus Physical Review: Friction of Molecules
This is an article published by the American Physical Society on friction in microscopic gears that results from the adhesion of molecules. A great exploration of this new obstacle in science.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Work, Energy, and Power: Mechanical Energy Is Conserved
In this interactive exercise, explore the quantitative relationship between work and mechanical energy in situations in which there are no external forces doing work.