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Graphing Your Motion-Day 1
Ninth graders explore the concepts of motion, velocity and acceleration through graphing their own movement using LoggerPro. They become more familiar with the computer technology. Students explore graphing in real time and graph on...
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Friction and Inertia
Students study friction and inertia, make predictions, and compare data. In this investigative lesson students view a demonstration on friction, divide into groups, and complete an activity.
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Fundamental Terms
Students explore Newton's Laws of Motion and how they apply to flight.
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VECTORS
Ninth graders explore vectors. In this vectors lesson students complete a lab activity.
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Swinging on a String
Students explore how pendulums work and why they are useful in everyday applications. In a hands-on activity, they experiment with string length, pendulum weight and angle of release.
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Weightlessness
Eighth graders study weight, force and mass as it pertains to the earths pull. In this weightlessness lesson students are divided into groups and complete an activity.
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Habits of Mind
Students study tree leaves to complete the activity, In this tree leaf experiment lesson, students observe, measure, and sort tree leaves individually, in groups, and in relationship to the entire tree.
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How Does a Satellite Stay in Orbit?
Students explore placing a satellite into orbit, then about forces needed to keep an object in orbit. They examine how satellites orbit in elliptical paths and about properties of ellipses. They learn Kepler's 3rd Law of Planetary Motion
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How Far?
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 by measuring the distance that a...
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Amusement Park Physics
Students get up close and personal with principles of motion. In this physics lesson plan, students collect and analyze acceleration data on amusement park rides. Students use CBLs to collect data in this lesson plan.
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Tractor Construction
Students working in small groups will build tractors. They must design a tractor that is able to pull various weights.
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The Science of Weather: Hurricanes
Students use this USA today activity to learn about hurricane season. For this hurricane lesson, students study the map of the earth and hurricane science. Students complete discuss questions. Students draw a map of the United States and...
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Floating and Falling Flows
Students discover fluid dynamics related to buoyancy through experimentation and optional photography. Using one set of fluids, they make light fluids rise through denser fluids. Using another set, they make dense fluids sink through a...
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Snack Attack: Food Packaging Activity
Students design and create packaging material for food. For this snack attack lesson, students design a package to protect a food item from heat and water. Students consider costs of materials, design, and test the package to see if it...
California Academy of Science
Energy: A Day in My Life
If only we could harness the energy of fifth graders, our energy problems would be over! The class discusses where different forms of energy come from and how we use them. They complete a chart of the activities that they do daily...
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FORCES, MOTION, AND ENERGY
Eighth graders engage in a variety of activities in order to investigate the basic concepts of physics. They read and answer questions in a written text. This is only one type of activity that is part of many others.
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WHAT HOLDS US TO EARTH?
Students they imagine they are Galileo and try to duplicate Galileo's experiments and results.
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Life Without Flight
Students keep a journal for an intire week recording their observations of the ways aircraft affect society, The students discuss their findings and categorize them into areas such as military, commercial, research, and so on.
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THE WRIGHT IDEA!
Learners learn about the technological development of flight by organizing a presentation on the history of flight.
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Looking at The Force on a Vehicle
Learners build a vehicle following technical drawings. They set up a system to pull the vehicles. Students compare and discuss how the motion of the vehicles changes more or less weight on a string is used to pull them.
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Secondary Robot
Students identify the forces acting on a stationary/constant velocity robot. For this physics lesson, students draw a free body diagrams of the forces. They explain the difference between zero acceleration and zero net force.
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Newton's Laws
Students give examples of each of Newton's three laws as they occur in everyday experiences. They visually represent and differentiate the difference between a direct proportion and an inverse proportion. Students explain how the...
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Simple Machines
Third graders are introduced to the six types of simple machines and discover how they make tasks easier. In groups, they rotate between stations to experiment with the different types of simple machines. To end the lesson, they make a...
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Actual Airflow vs. Ideal Airflow: Stalls
Students use 3-D modeling techniques to observe the characteristic signature of the stall condition apparent on an airfoil at high angles of attack. They use FoilSim to compare the above with ideal airflow.