Curated OER
Spin Stabilization
Students investigate methods used by aeronautical engineers to keep rockets on target. After exploring the center of gravity and the center of pressure, students build water rockets. Students use various methods to design fins on the...
Curated OER
TECH:Model Rocketry - Air Powered (Trans)
Students describe the evolution of rocketry and the impacts of aerospace technology. They explain the basic principles of flight and basic physics of motion. Students design, construct, and launch a small rocket.
Curated OER
Launching Rockets
Second graders discuss experiences of watching a rocket launch either on television or in person before making paper rockets. They make and color rockets which they attempt to launch using a strong breath blown through a straw at the...
Curated OER
Newton's Laws and Rocketball
Students investigate Newton's Three Laws. In this Newton's Law activity, students write the laws in their own words. Students then do an experiment with a ping pong ball. Students drop the ball from a set distance and record their...
Curated OER
Apollo Moon Landing
Students explore paper rockets, learn about the Apollo Program and Apollo spin-offs, and use simple office supplies to design and create a new useful product. This amazing plan is incredibly well written and leads students through a...
Curated OER
How Do Probes Get To Space
Students investigate how force works to propel rockets into outer space. In this physics lesson, students use a drinking straw, fishing line, a balloon, and tape to explore how force works in outer space. Students repeat the experiment...
Curated OER
Impulse, Momentum, and the Conservation of Momentum
What happens when two worlds collide? In the first of several activities, future physicists experiment with colliding ball bearings or Newton's cradle. Another activity requires the use of an air track with cars to examine collision....
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: The Snowy Day
Scholars listen to a read-aloud of fiction and nonfiction books, The Snowy Day, written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats, and Snow Is Falling, written by Franklyn Branley and illustrated by Holly Keller, then take part in four creative...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Stars
A Reading Adventure Pack explores the night sky. Reading Her Seven Brothers by Paul Goble and Find the Constellations by H.A. Rey begin the learning experience. Scholars craft a night sky mobile, go stargazing, and write a mythical story...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Rivers
A Reading Adventure Pack showcases a fiction and nonfiction book followed by a series of hands-on activities. First, learners widdle sticks to build a tiny raft, conduct sensory experiments, and create a rap or folk song about rivers and...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Flight
A Reading Adventure pack focuses on the invention of flight. After reading a fiction and nonfiction book, scholars take their newfound knowledge to design a one-passenger flying device, experiment with different types of paper airplanes...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Environment
A fiction and nonfiction text, The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest by Lynne Cherry and I See a Kookaburra! Discovering Animal Habitats Around the World by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page begins a learning experience in...
Teach Engineering
Hydrogen-Oxygen Reaction Lab
High schoolers conduct an experiment using the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. After pairs balance the chemical equation for making water, they mix different ratios of hydrogen and oxygen in a chemical reaction. Classmates...
NASA
Newton Car
If a car gets heavier, it goes farther? By running an activity several times, teams experience Newton's Second Law of Motion. The teams vary the amount of weight they catapult off a wooden block car and record the distance the car...
Friends of Fort McHenry
Cannons During the War of 1812
During the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, only 25% of the bombs and rockets fired at Fort McHenry actually reached their target. Using an interactive online simulation, combine your historical study with physics and discover why...
NASA
Engineering Design for Human Exploration
What would it take to live on the lunar surface? Small groups build model rockets in order to simulate launching a habitat into space and rebuilding it. Divide the class into groups to design and build a model of a lunar habitat. The...
NASA
Space Shuttle Ascent: Mass vs. Time
Set the stage for groups of rocket scientists to explore the change in mass of the space shuttle during ascent. Teams work together to graph actual launch data in order to determine the rate of propellent burn.
Curated OER
October Sky
In this rockets worksheet, students complete the questions while watching the video, October Sky. Students learn about the experimental aspects of building a rocket. Students complete 4 graphic organizers and 11 short answer questions.
Curated OER
Rocketry in Motion
Students investigate why a balloon flies in one direction as air escapes in the opposite direction, which helps them understand the nature of rockets and fireworks. Individually and in teams, students conduct research to create a...
Curated OER
3-2-1 Blast Off!
Students explore physics by participating in a flight experiment. In this rocket design lesson, students discuss the scientific process and how chemical reaction can create the energy needed to boost a rocket. Students utilize...
Curated OER
Investigation: Blast Off!
First graders explore physics by participating in a class experiment. In this flight instructional activity, 1st graders create a spinner using construction paper and snap cubes which fly when spun right in class. Students make...
Curated OER
Alka Rockets! An Introduction to Kinetics
Students identify the factors that influence reaction rates. In this chemistry lesson, students design an experiment to test one factor they identified. They perform the experiment and share the results to the entire class.
Curated OER
Pop Rockets
Students study Newton's Third Law of Motion which involves action and reaction. They discover what makes a rocket go and then design and construct a rocket that will launch the furthest using the pressure created by an antacid tablet...
Curated OER
Antacid Tablet Race
Students compare the reaction rates of effervescent antacid tablets under different conditions. They investigate methods of increasing the power of rocket fuels by manipulating surface area and temperature.