Field Trips and Simple Physics

The choice is simple: create a PowerPoint presentation, write a book, or invent a compound machine. Whichever project your young scientists choose, they will be engaged in creatively demonstrating their knowledge of simple...

Planning a unit on simple machines? Save some time and energy with this collection of lessons and activities that explores how these devices are used in the real world to make life a little easier. 

Make your work as a teacher a little easier with a physical science project on simple machines. After introducing young scientists to these devices and identifying their different uses around the school, this project engages...

Physics fanatics will shriek over this monster-themed construction application! They design an invention with the intention of competing one of 50 missions and test it out with real physics applications. 

Cell phones to crowdsource vibrations to warn of incoming earthquakes? Detectors to register high levels of radon-thoron isotopes? After detailing the factors that make earthquakes so difficult to predict, the narrator of a fascinating...

It's easy to find out in today's world when the next eclipse will be, but what about thousands of years ago? Junior astronomers discover how the Babylonians used lunar observations to accurately predict future eclipses through an...

Have you heard of the Fosbury Flop? It was invented by a college high jumper in and has become the standard technique for high jumpers world wide. Learn the physics of this move and why it is more effective for clearing the bar than the...

It is plane to see that simple machines help reduce the force needed to perform a task.  This resource introduces three of the simple machines--the inclined plane, the wedge, and the screw, and  the formulas in order to be able...

Class members are challenged to design a device that will move a circus elephant into a train car. Groups brainstorm ideas that use simple machines to load the elephant. They then choose one of their ideas, sketch a plan, and present it...

Students research definitions and examples of simple machines. They identify simple machines that are working parts of playground equipment that reflects their personalities and incorporates at least two simple machines. Students are...