Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Playing with Parachutes
This lesson certainly will not be a drag! Little engineers design parachutes that make use of air resistance and, as a result, slow the descent of the payload as much as possible. It is an opportunity to teach about many motion concepts:...
NASA
Egg Drop Lander
You have to crack a few eggs to make a good engineer! Working in small groups, young scholars design, build, and test devices that protect an egg from breaking when dropped from a ladder.
DiscoverE
Air-Powered Mini Rocket
Does the position of the clips make a difference? The activity provides directions to build and test a paper rocket. Pupils attach paper clips to the rocket in different configurations and measure the distance the rocket flies each time....
DiscoverE
Launch It
Launch pupil interest in rockets. Scholars build rockets out of straws and balloons to learn about Newton's Third Law of Motion. Their task is to hit a target five feet away. It's not as easy as it seems!
DiscoverE
Rocket-Powered Ski Lift
If a ski lift had rockets, imagine how fast it would be! Scholars let their imaginations take flight as they build models for such a ski lift. Rather than using a rocket, though, they'll use a much safer balloon as the power source.
Teach Engineering
Exploring Acceleration with an Android
Small groups use rubber bands to accelerate an Android device along a track of books. They collect the acceleration data and analyze it in order to determine the device's velocity.
NASA
Nasa: The Space Place: Build a Newtonian Physics Machine
Great hands on way to explain Newton's Second Law of Motion. Choose from three different Newtonian physics machines to build and test Newton's Second Law.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Car Collision Testing & Tradeoffs: Don't Crack Humpty
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...
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: Spring Thing: Newton's Second Law
In this activity, students' use a force sensor and a motion detector to collect force and acceleration data for an object moving up and down hanging from a spring. They use the data to test Newton's second law, and to estimate the mass...
University of California
Understanding Science: Newton's 2nd Law: Inquiry Approach Lesson
For this lesson, students develop their own scientific experiment to test Newton's hypothesis that the acceleration of an object depends on the net force acting upon it and its mass. After completing their designed experiment, students...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Into Space!
While building and testing model rockets fueled by antacid tablets, students are introduced to the basic physics concepts on how rockets work. Students revise and improve their initial designs. Note: This activity is similar to the...
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: Velocity
This activity will test a student's understanding of the relationships between location and motion as pertaining to time.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Rocket Power
By making and testing simple balloon rockets, students acquire a basic understanding of Newton's third law of motion as it applies to rockets. Using balloons, string, straws and tape, they see how rockets are propelled by expelling...