Curated OER
Roller Coaster Physics
Students design a roller coaster that allows a marble to run the course as fast as possible. Students create an experimental roller coaster taking into account the steepness of the hills and the sharpness of the turns. Students use a...
Curated OER
Power in the Tubes
Eighth graders investigate the relationship between force, distance and time. In this physical science lesson students compute the work done, graph and find the relationship between work and power.
Curated OER
Newton's Second Law
In this Newton's Second Law instructional activity, students answer 13 questions about force, mass and acceleration. They calculate weight, force, masses and acceleration of objects.
Curated OER
Fettucini Physics
Students design a structure capabl;e of holding a textbook. They demonstrate that the weight of a textbook is offset by the normal force exerted on the book by the structure.
Curated OER
Gravity Exploration
In this gravity instructional activity, students determine how much they would weigh on the different planets. Students calculate how far they could jump on other planets. This instructional activity has 2 graphic organizers and 6 short...
Curated OER
Lifting a Load
Students experiments with levers to determine if the amount of force needed to lift a load is always the same. In this physics lesson plan, students use Lab-Pro data collector as they experiment with the fulcrum placement to measure the...
Curated OER
Impulsive Force Model
In this impulsive force worksheet, students calculate speed, force, and velocity for several word problems as it relates to the concepts in physics. Students also apply the momentum conservation equation to each problem.
Curated OER
Walking on Water
Students use this problem to help them to relate to force vectors: Suspend a meterstick horizontally between two tables. Place a 1kg mass in the middle of the meterstick. Notice the bend of the meterstick. Explain why the meterstick...
Curated OER
DEAD MAN'S CURVE
Ninth graders, after being given a unique scenario and a task sheet on Dead Man's Curve, calculate and explain the force needed to keep a car on a curve using a set of formulas and a geometric property of circles. They utilize and create...
Curated OER
Bubble and Boyle
Even middle schoolers still enjoy experimenting with bubbles! They execute a series of experiments enabling them to distinguish between convex and concave surfaces, explore the properties of buoyancy, surface tension, and density,...
Curated OER
Levers, Pulleys, Incline Planes
In this pulleys, levers and incline planes learning exercise, students answer 22 questions about output force, energy loss, and net force on pulleys, levers and incline planes.
Curated OER
First Class Lever Lab
For this first class lever worksheet, students investigate the mechanical advantage of this simple machine. Students change the effort arm and the resistance arm and calculate the resistance force, effort force and the mechanical...
Curated OER
Speed and Collisions Administration Procedures
Learners investigate speed as an important variable regarding force of an impact. Students roll a car down a ramp and into a block of wood. The distance the car travels, the time until impact and the distance the block moves are...
Curated OER
Helium Balloon Race
Students determine the force of a helium balloon that allows it to rise a specific distance. In this helium instructional activity students calculate the amount of paper needed to construct a weight and determine the density of a piece...
Curated OER
Science Lesson for Grade 12
Twelfth graders perform dihybrid crosses and calculate phenotype and genotype ratios. In this series of science lessons, 12th graders explain the process of anodizing aluminum. They research on the benefits and harm caused by resonance...
Curated OER
Ready, Set, Go!
Middle schoolers predict if the height of a ramp affect how far an object travels. They design and conduct an experiment to test their predictions. The results are recorded and a graph is created to show the relationship between ramp...
Bowels Physics
Torque: Rotational Statics and Rotational Dynamics
Scholars examine the application of torque in relation to motion by viewing a comprehensive presentation that explains the basic concepts related to torque and rotational motion. The lesson ends with examples showing how to calculate...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Many Cells Are in the Human Body?
Investigating the large numbers of science is the task in a simple but deep activity. Given a one-sentence problem set-up and some basic assumptions, the class sets off on an open-ended investigation that really gives some context to all...
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...
Teach Engineering
Magnetic Fields Matter
Help your young scientists learn which materials are affected by magnetic fields with an activity that presents the information about different types of materials — diamagnetic, paramagnetic, and ferromagnetic — and their interaction...
Curated OER
Circular Motion
In this circular motion learning exercise, students calculate the speed of circular motion as presented in each word problem. Students find the normal force as well as the frictionless force as it affect the circular motion of the object...
Curated OER
Fall 2003 Midterm Exam #1
Electricity is the focus of this college-level midterm exam. It requres physics learners to answer multiple choice and short answer questions in addition to evaluating several diagrams and graphs. This is appropriate for most high school...
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.
Science Geek
The Hydrogen Bomb
Recycled Russian nuclear weapons provide 10 percent of the nuclear energy that the United States uses. The short presentation discusses the Teller-Ulam device. It provides a diagram of the parts as well as a description of the four...