In this lesson, your learners will learn about kinetic and potential energy as they build their own roller coasters from simple classroom materials.

Explains different kinds of energy, covering kinetic, potential, gravitational, mechanical, sound, thermal, chemical, electrical, and radiant energy. Also looks at storage, transfer, and dissipation of energy. Includes a short...

An interactive skate park simulation that teaches about energy, conservation of energy, kinetic energy, potential energy, and friction. This simulation can either be downloaded or played online and includes handouts, lesson plans, and...

In this activity, learners are introduced to both potential energy and kinetic energy as forms of mechanical energy. A hands-on activity demonstrates how potential energy can change into kinetic energy by swinging a pendulum,...

Explains what kinetic and potential energy are and how they differ.

Students drop water from different heights to demonstrate the conversion of water's potential energy to kinetic energy. They see how varying the height from which water is dropped affects the splash size. They follow good experiment...

Students will design, build, and race balloon-powered cars in this fun lesson plan that teaches about engineering design and kinetic and potential energy.

Learn about mechanical energy, and its forms of potential and kinetic.

This unit has students design and build foam tubing roller coasters. The design process integrates energy concepts as they test and evaluate their designs that address the task as an engineer would. The goal is for students to understand...

Science experiment that demonstrates how energy is transferred. Includes full list of materials, procedures, and scientific explanation of how the tension in the catapult causes an object to travel far.

In this hands-on activity - rolling a ball down an incline and having it collide into a cup - the concepts of mechanical energy, work and power, momentum, and friction are all demonstrated. During the activity, students take measurements...

Investigating a waterwheel illustrates to students the physical properties of energy. They learn that the concept of work, force acting over a distance, differs from power, which is defined as force acting over a distance over some...

This is a really fun project even if you don't like going on roller coasters yourself. You'll build a roller coaster track for marbles using foam pipe insulation and masking tape, and see how much of an initial drop is required to get...

In this hands-on activity students learn create a device to protect a dropped egg and deliver it close to a target. Students learn about engineering as well as potential and kinetic energy and energy transfer

Hold onto your hats. In this science fair project, you will make a device that sends a film canister across the room with a small chemical explosion. The energy for the explosion is derived from the combustion of ethanol. You will...

As a continuation of the theme of potential and kinetic energy, this lesson introduces the concepts of momentum, elastic and inelastic collisions. Many sports and games, such as baseball and ping-pong, illustrate the ideas of momentum...

A discussion from the Oklahoma Climatological Survey of the thermal factors effecting the movement of air masses in the atmosphere. Numerous topics such as methods of heat transfer, latent heat, phase changes (including sublimation and...

After creating three different ramps with various heights, students will release toy cars from the tops of each ramp. Based on the elementary age level, students will collect data and analyze it.

Yo-yo's are a fun toy and there is nothing simpler than a string wrapped between two connected disks. But there's a lot of physics that makes a yo-yo work. In this science fair project, learn more about how and why a yo-yo works. You...

Students build a device to protect an egg and prevent it from breaking when dropped.

Find out about the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and how they relate to the biology of life.

Estrella Mountain Community College provides excellent introductory information on the laws of thermodynamics. Has some learning objectives outlined at the end of the page.

Help Dracula find out about light waves by using a virtual radiometer.

Students learn why and how motion occurs and what governs changes in motion, as described by Newton's three laws of motion. They gain hands-on experience with the concepts of forces, changes in motion, and action and reaction. In an...