Curated OER
Swinging
Middle schoolers examine and modify a swinging apparatus. They describe the motion of an object by its position, direction of motion, and speed. Students measure motion using a graph.
Curated OER
Hlf-Ball
Students investigate Newton's Laws of Motion and the Law of Conservation of Energy. They examine how a ball and half-ball behave and relate these laws to what happens to the ball. Students produce a graph of the data collected and...
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl Matilda Lesson Plans
Fifty eye-catching pages contain six lessons about Roald Dahl's novel, Matilda. Each lesson has a theme and covers a different subject—literacy, social-emotional learning, science, and geography. Scholars analyze characters, examine...
Cornell University
Buoyancy
Swimmers know to float by turning their bodies horizontally rather than vertically, but why does that make a difference? In an interesting lesson plan, scholars explore buoyancy and the properties of air and water. They test cups to see...
STEM for Teachers
Tsunami!
How does the depth of an ocean affect the speed of a tsunami's waves? Use Jell-o, graham crackers, and marshmallows to model the effects of an underwater earthquake and its resulting tsunami. The lesson includes hands-on activities,...
DiscoverE
Build a Bobsled Racer
Host a design challenge of Olympic proportion! Junior engineers build their own bobsleds using simple materials. The activity focuses on kinetic and potential energy and how the center of mass affects motion on a downhill track....
Curated OER
Medieval Catapults
Students design and build a working catapult or trebuchet to explore the concepts of force, motion, and distance.
Curated OER
Newton's Laws
In this motion worksheet, students read about the 3 laws of motion and then complete a graphic organizer describing the laws and giving an example for each one.
Curated OER
Newton Rocket Car
Students observe a demonstration of Newton's third law of motion using a small wooden car. They discuss Newton's third law of motion and what happens to motion if the mass or acceleration is increased, construct their car, and record...
Sharp School
Newton’s Laws of Motion Project
After a review of all three of Newton's laws, physical scientists complete a choice project. They can create a book in which they collect pictures where the laws of motion are depicted, produce a PowerPoint presentation, or produce a...
Curated OER
Move It!!!
Students explore motion by observing the movement of people and duplicating those movements. They compare and contrast various kinds of movements and identify different types of movements in pictures. They build an object that can be...
Kenan Fellows
Analyzing Speed from Different Modalities
Show us your moves. Using sensor equipment, scholars track the motion of different movements, such as jogging, skipping, or jump roping. They analyze velocity and acceleration and create graphs representing each movement.
Curated OER
Momentum Worksheet
Young Newtons solve nine momentum problems on a physics homework assignment. They tell which moving object has more momentum, compute average force, determine velocity, and more. Using this resource, you can assess your physics pupils'...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Give Me a Brake
Learners explore the concept of how brakes can stop or slow mechanical motion. They examine the operation of a bicycle brake and use low cost materials to devise a simple braking system. Finally, they work as a team to suggest...
Curated OER
How to Make a Wind Vane
Students measure the direction of the wind. In this Science lesson, students make their own wind vane. Students discuss the importance of wind direction and speed.
Curated OER
Following Directions
Kindergartners learn about the ways force can stop and reverse motion. Several illustrations of children help them determine if the motion is causing an item to change direction. Next, they conduct an experiment to see if a water balloon...
LABScI
Kinematics: The Gravity Lab
Falling objects can be brutal if you don't protect your noodle! Scholars explore the motion of falling objects through measuring short intervals to determine if the distance traveled varies with time. Building off of this, scholars...
Curated OER
Unit III: Worksheet 1 - Uniform Acceleration
This concise handout posts a diagram of a block sliding down a ramp. High schoolers draw qualitative graphical representations for displacement vs. time, velocity vs. time, and acceleration vs. time. They draw a motion map and list the...
Exploratorium
Momentum Machine
If you have a rotating office chair in your classroom, you can have physics pupils participate in this simple, yet effective demonstration of angular momentum. One partner sits in the chair, arms outstretched, holding heavy weights. The...
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
Lou-Vee-Air Car
Who said teaching a STEM lesson had to be challenging? Incorporate a career and technology-centered car build into your upcoming force lesson plan, and your class will be moving down the road in no time! Pupils practice...
Curated OER
Weighing and Determining the Average Density of the Earth
Some background information about density and Newton's Laws of gravitation and motion assist pupils in the following experiment. The procedure will help them further their understanding of gravity, pendulums, and a drop-ball experiment....
Curated OER
Typical Numeric Questions for Physics I - Momentum
Simple momentum computations and more complex collision computations can be found on these two worksheets. All of them can be answered by choosing from five possibilities. The first worksheet contains nine problems to solve, while...
NASA
Water Rocket Launcher
How can you launch an object that isn't propelled by air? The resource provides directions to build a launcher to launch rockets made of two-liter bottles. The launcher, built mainly from materials found at the local hardware...
Curated OER
Gyroscopes in Motion
Physics stars will enjoy learning about the conservation of energy as you demonstrate gyroscope precession. The lecture is broken into five subtopics: cross product, rotating vectors, angular momentum, rotating rigid bodies, and torque...