Ride the wave to an understanding of refraction! The first in a series of two inquiry-based lessons challenges learners to create transverse waves with two different types of springs. As their wave hits an object, they observe the change...

Three memorable activities build on each other to give physics masters a firm grasp of Newton's Second Law. Pupils play with a lab cart on a flat surface and on an incline to confirm that force is equal to mass times acceleration. In the...

West of the West's documentary Arlington Springs Man and a two-page scientific article about the same topic provide the text for a reading comprehension exercise that asks individuals to craft a one page summary of information gathered...

Do you need some new ideas for teaching Newton's Laws of Motion? This series of activities will spring your curriculum to life! Choose from five activities to demonstrate or have your science stars perform. As a result, they...

Everything from pens to cars use springs — some are just on a larger scale! An interactive simulation encourages pupils to stretch and compress springs while observing the changes to force, displacement, and potential energy. Then they...

Provide a Hooke for a lesson on elasticity with an activity that has groups investigate a set of springs. They use a set procedure to collect data to calculate the spring constant for each spring using Hooke's Law. The groups...

A suggested sequence of events lays out five hands-on activities and four creative assessments on the conservation of momentum. Using spring scales and mail scales, junior physicists examine Newton's Third Law. After you have taught the...

Here is a math lab that helps young mathematicians understand the real-life meaning for vector addition. By building a model using spring scales and washers as weight, and then calculating the vector addition using two different methods,...

Friction is a force that can be felt, which means that learners with visual impairments can experiment to feel and understand the concept of friction. They slide a rock along a smooth table, and then they slide a rock across sandpaper,...

Young scholars measure, record, and graph the force of moving a block of wood along sand paper. In this friction lesson plan, students read a spring scale, collect data, construct a graph, and propose a model to explain how fiction works.

In this scientific instruments worksheet, students are given photographs and titles of four instruments used in measurements. They answer five questions about the instruments used to measure specific items and the unit of measurement for...

Entropy, it isn't what it used to be. Presentation includes kinetic-molecular theory, heat and internal energy, thermal equilibrium, temperature scales, laws of thermodynamics, entropy, latent heat of fusion, specific heat, calorimetry,...

Students explore mass, volume, and weight. In this science and measurement instructional activity, students compare volume, mass, and weight after listening to the teacher's description of each. Students explore different scales and...

Why does Earth experience summer, fall, winter, and spring? Using an informative demonstration, learners see how the angle of the sun on Earth and the rotation of Earth determine the seasons. Scholars work in pairs to learn that the...

In this mars and scaling instructional activity, students use the given image to determine the dimensions of the image and the size of specific details on the image. They calculate the image scale in meters in order to determine...

Designed to use when teaching adults preparing for their high school equivalency exam, the resource integrates reading practice, writing, and analytical thinking in every lesson. The unit covers 23 topics, but it only includes three...

You don't have to be a scientist or even out of high school to contribute to scientific research. In the 12th lesson in the series of 21, scholars use this opportunity to add to the growing body of scientific knowledge and consider the...

Fourth graders are introduced to a spring scale to show that the forces on both sides of the pulley are the same. They break into groups to lift objects with fixed pulleys and with multiple looped pulleys and then measure the force...

Fourth graders study everyday examples of simple machines. They examine how the combination of a wheel and axle works more efficiently than either in isolation. In a demonstration lesson, they see how a spring scale shows a force pulling...

Ninth graders use a spring scale to drag an object such as a ceramic coffee cup along a table top or the floor. The spring scale allows them to measure the frictional force that exists between the moving cup and the surface it slides on....

Learners explore weight by building a spring scale and observing how it responds to objects with different masses. Each team of students can make their own spring scale by following steps which are specifically outlined in the plan. As...

The students learn about friction and forces through direct instruction and an investigation. They use measurement skills, observation skills, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on data collected during the investigation. Students...

Why do you weigh more in space? Each individual in your class explores this question and others as they determine the mass and weight of different objects using two types of scales. They perform conversions and discuss their...

Students describe the different bodies that make up our solar system, explain the place of our solar system within the Milky Way Galaxy and the universe, explain day and night and the Earth's movement, and describe the relationship...