Altitude and Flight Forces

Using PVC pipe and aquarium tubing, build an altitude tracker. Pupils then use the altitude tracker, along with a tangent table, to calculate the altitude of a launched rocket using the included data collection sheet.

How do rockets fly? Teams design, build, and launch a rocket made from a two-liter bottle to explore forces on a rocket such as Newton's Laws of Motion.  During the design phase, young engineers draw a diagram of their rocket and include...

What are the basics for building a rocket out of a two-liter bottle? The procedures outline the basics to create an air- and water-powered bottle rocket. Prior to launching the rockets, teams perform safety checks to ensure their designs...

High school physicists demonstrate Bernoulli's Principle by blowing on different items and finding that they do not move in the expected direction! They apply Bernoulli's equation to the flight of an airplane. This well-organized lesson...

All systems go! With a video and a Google Earth tour as background, pairs investigate two graphs. The graphs display acceleration vs. time and velocity vs. time of a space shuttle launch. Using graphing calculators, the pairs take a...

It is called an "UnTest" because it is not the test, just a practice exam. The six problems to be solved pertain to acceleration, making it a useful set of problems for your first year physics learners to tackle. 

Teams construct rockets to carry out predetermined missions using different rocket-building techniques. Groups develop the mission specifications and rocket design plans for approval prior to construction. Teams launch similar missions...

Students use the Internet and other resources to word process a log book describing their "flight" through our solar system. During their "flight," they discover a new planet. They study and describe conditions on this planet. Then the...

A fabulous lesson plan which combines mathematics with space science. Middle schoolers work in cooperative groups in order to research early astronauts and their accomplishments. They look at a variety of rocket and space shuttle...

Students examine force and conduct activities that model parachutes and helicopters.  For this airplanes lesson students identify the forces that make airplanes fly higher and land.