Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Would You Weigh Less in an Elevator?

For Students 9th - 10th
Video that uses an elevator in motion to describe the relationship among weight, gravity, and relative motion. [3:36] Includes a short quiz and a list of additional resources to explore.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Sliding Textbooks

For Teachers 5th - 7th
In this culminating activity of the unit which highlights how forces play a role in engineering design and material choices, students explore and apply their knowledge of forces, friction, acceleration, and gravity in a two-part experiment.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Car Collision Testing & Tradeoffs: Don't Crack Humpty

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Student groups are provided with a generic car base on which to design a device/enclosure to protect an egg as it rolls down a ramp at increasing slopes. During this activity, student teams design, build and test their prototype...
Website
University of St. Andrews (UK)

University of St. Andrews: Orbits and Gravitation

For Students 9th - 10th
A page describing the physics, mathematics, and historical figures associated with planetary motion, satellite motion, and universal gravitation.
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Mechanics Mania

For Teachers 5th - 7th
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...
Unit Plan
University of New South Wales (Australia)

University of New South Wales: School of Physics: Physclips

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Physiclips thoroughly presents mechanics concepts with animations and film clips.
Online Course
Cosmo Learning

Cosmo Learning: Fundamentals of Physics

For Students 9th - 10th
A collection of video lectures from a fundamentals of physics course taught at Yale University. The course is an introduction to physics and discusses Newtonian mechanics, special relativity, gravity, thermodynamics, and waves. Course...
Handout
Upper Canada District School Board

Tom Stretton's Chemistry Pages: Universal Gravitation

For Students 9th - 10th
Deepen your understanding about the Law of Universal Gravitation. Find out how the many scientists throughout history contributed to one of the most widely known scientific theories.
Handout
Wikimedia

Wikipedia: The Black Hole

For Students 9th - 10th
This site examines the black hole as an object in astrophysics. Delve into this comprehensive resource that covers this concept from its history, to qualitative physics, the reality of black holes, mathematical physics and more.
Handout
Physics Classroom

The Physics Classroom: Satellite Motion

For Students 9th - 10th
An animation depicting the path of projectiles launched at various launch speeds from the fictional Newton's Mountain. Accompanying text discusses satellite motion and the requirements of orbital motion. Links to further information is...
Activity
Science Bob Pflugfelder

Science Bob: The Lincoln High Dive

For Students 5th - 8th
Instructions for a science demonstration of Newton's first law of motion using common supplies. Learn how to turn the demonstration into an experiment.
Website
NASA

Nasa: Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from NASA uses a colorful graphic to illustrate why objects reach terminal velocity. Provides equation for the terminal velocity of an object. Graphic is accompanied by a simple explanation.
Website
University of Virginia

Uva Physics: Using Vectors to Describe Motion

For Students 9th - 10th
Background information on vectors and their use in describing motion in two dimensions. A comparison of Aristotle's and Galileo's perspectives on force and motion is given.
Activity
Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments: How Can a Clock Part Measure Gravity?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this activity students will learn how to make a simple pendulum. Students' will use a motion detector to measure the period of a pendulum and calculate its acceleration.They will also understand the effect that gravity has on the...
Website
NASA

Nasa: Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics

For Students 9th - 10th
Includes exhaustive information and a wealth of activities pertaining to aerodynamics and the physics of flight.
eBook
Other

Wikibooks: Physics Study Guide

For Students 9th - 10th
A handy resource that gives an overview of equations and definitions pertinent to an introductory, college-level physics course, with two of its three sections focusing on motion-related topics and principles.
Handout
University of St. Andrews (UK)

University of St. Andrews: Isaac Newton (1643 1727)

For Students 9th - 10th
This life of Isaac Newton' traces his life from birth through childhood to his rise as a renown scientist and mathematician.
Activity
University of Minnesota

The Physics of Flight: Bernoulli's Principle

For Students 9th - 10th
Discusses air flow around the wing of a plane and its effect upon the lift and drag forces. Focuses on the application of Bernoulli's principle to wing design and the subsequent airfoil shapes.
Handout
American Association of Physics Teachers

Com Padre Digital Library: Open Source Physics: Remarkable Three Body Motions

For Teachers 9th - 10th
What happens in space when a third celestial body joins two others? Discover both simple and complex situations which occur supporting Newtonian law in space with this collection of applets.
Interactive
American Association of Physics Teachers

Com Padre Digital Library: Open Source Physics: Newton's Mountain Model

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A science simulation launches a projectile from the top of a mountain testing Newton's theory introduced in Principia.
Handout
Georgia State University

Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Potential Energy

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from Georgia State University Physics Department defines and explains the concept of potential energy. Using equations and graphics to illustrate the idea, it discusses the many types of potential energy (gravitational,...
Article
Other

Bscs: Forces and Motion Content Background Document

For Teachers K - 1st
In this document, we will try to answer a fundamental question of physical science, "Why do things start to move, slow down, speed up, stop moving or change direction?" In answering these core questions we can develop concepts that can...
Handout
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Harcourt: Biographies: Isaac Newton

For Students 9th - 10th
A brief biography on scientist Isaac Newton, highlighting his discoveries and the book he published in 1687, "Principia", which was on his theories of gravity and laws of motion.
Activity
Bill Nye

Bill Nye: Falling for Science

For Students 1st - 5th
Try this at-home science experiment to learn about acceleration due to gravity.

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