NASA
Touchdown
Just how do astronauts stay safe during moon landings? Here's an activity that allows investigators to use the engineering process to explore how shock absorbers protect astronauts during landing. Applying knowledge of gravity, force,...
Curated OER
Pendulum Clocks
Students use string, wire, weights, and a stopwatch to build pendulum clocks. In this pendulum clocks lesson plan, students use the pendulum clocks to investigate weather, climate, force, and motion.
Curated OER
Pushes and Pulls
Students examine different types of movement and causes that may affect those movements. In this online interactive forces and motion lesson, students use toy cars to observe push and pull and then make predictions and collect data...
Curated OER
Animation Flip Books
Students investigate examples of animation made from a flipbook technique in order to learn how to create their own flipbook and to learn how this process looks like an animated cartoon. In this animation lesson, students will observe...
Curated OER
Motion Concentration Game
Students play a memory game that asks them to correctly match a vocabulary word about motion or force with a picture.
Curated OER
Pushy Kids in Physics
Students examine the concepts of balanced forces, unbalanced forces, and resulting net forces. They participate in a force and motion demonstration by pushing students in various directions, and calculating and identifying the resulting...
Bowels Physics
Newton's First Law
Force acts on objects in mysterious ways ... until now! A comprehensive presentation explains the balance of forces acting on objects. Learners draw free body diagrams to show these invisible forces and make force calculations.
NASA
Christa's Lost Lesson: Newton’s Laws
How do the laws of motion work in space? Learners explore Newton's laws of motion in different experiments as part of the Christa's Lost Lessons series. They rotate around the room in three stations to experience each law in action using...
Teach Engineering
Projectile Magic
What do the movies October Key and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone have in common? The fourth installment of a five-part module presents equations regarding projectile motion and how to rearrange them. Scholars view video clips...
Virginia Department of Education
Work and Power
Assist your class with correctly calculating the values for force, work, and power as they determine the amount various activities require. They gather data and participate in a group discussion to compare results upon conclusion of the...
NTTI
Vectors: Traveling, But in What Direction
High schoolers watch a video of real-world situations regarding speed, direction, velocity, force, etc. and answer questions while viewing. They then practice drawing and using vectors to solve more real-world problems.
Curated OER
Balloon-Powered Car
Attractive and logical instructions are provided for constructing a balloon-powered car. Young physical scientists measure the distance their car travels and record it on a pre-printed data sheet. The make alterations to improve the...
PBS
Invisible Force
Investigate invisible forces. Young engineers design a setup that changes the direction of a steel ball using a magnetic force. The purpose of the setup is to model the gravitational pull of spacecraft by planetary bodies.
Curated OER
Upwelling in the World Ocean
Here is a fascinating topic: the upwelling of ocean waters. Oceanography pupils learn what mechanisms cause upwelling, types of upwelling, and the effects on marine life. Colorful satellite imagery and informative diagrams bring this...
Curated OER
Forces Applied to an Object
Fourth graders predict, observe, and compare what happens when a force is applied to an object. In this forces instructional activity, 4th graders complete a 'swinging hammer' activity to learn about forces and motion.
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...
Curated OER
Magnetic Forces and Particle Motion
In this magnetic forces and particle motion worksheet, students use the equation for the radius of a spiral to answer 3 questions about charged particle motion.
Curated OER
Laws of Motion
Young scholars explore centrifugal and centripetal force. In this motion lesson, students expand on their knowledge of motion to study velocity, acceleration, and friction. Young scholars examine multiple objects to demonstrate the laws...
Curated OER
Simple Machines
Students explore the concepts of force and effort by observing simple machines. In this physics lesson, students attempt to sharpen a pencil without any help, bite into an orange with their lips curled over their teeth, and other...
Curated OER
The Magic School Bus Plays Ball
Students learn along with Ms. Frizzle's class. In this Magic School Bus lesson plan, students work in small groups to find how movement changes when there is more - and less - friction.
Curated OER
Review of Work, Energy and Power
In this physics worksheet, students complete 50 multiple choice questions on physics. They determine the magnitude of work, energy and power.
Curated OER
Friction Restriction: Creating a Design Plan to Redesign the Tread of Tennis Sneakers to Increase Friction
Students evaluate the friction of tennis sneakers and redesign them to increase friction. In this physics instructional activity, students calculate starting, sideways and forward stopping friction. Using quantitative data, they prove...
Curated OER
Raptor Force
Learners observe a video about pilots, their desired traits, and explore the similarities between a bird and an airplane. Using paper, wood or foam, they design create an aircraft to be flown in a competition to see which plane will fly...
Curated OER
A Worksheet About Newton's Laws
In this Newton's laws worksheet, students review the law of inertia, the law of acceleration, and the law relating force to acceleration. This worksheet has 10 short answer questions.