Curated OER
Peak Performance
Students design and build a car that is capable of traveling across the floor quickly, and also up a steep ramp.
Curated OER
LEGO Balance
Students design and build a balance using LEGO, string, and a set of standard metric weights.
Curated OER
Perching Parrot
Pupils explore the concepts of center of mass and static equilibrium by seeing how non-symmetrical objects balance. They also analyze why all forces on an object must cancel out exactly for an object to be stationary.
Curated OER
A Veritable Circus: Investigating Balance
Learners experiment with balance to learn about verticle balance, horizontal balance, center of gravity, and become active problem solvers and "scientists." Student engage in manipulating and changing experimental materials.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Why Winglets?
Make a paper airplane and experiment with adding winglets to it to test its performance. The Science Buddies project ideas are set up consistently beginning with an abstract, objective, and introduction, followed by a section on terms,...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Balancing Act: Finding Your Center of Gravity
Like to have the balance of a tightrope walker? Try the more close - to - the - ground balancing test in this easy experiment to learn a few trade secrets of the high wire experts. In this project, you'll find your center of gravity and...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Tightening the Turns in Speed Skating
Fast turns around the track can become your laboratory tests in these experiments, whether you skate on ice, wood, or pavement. The goal is to determine which type of turns are best in a race - tight, medium, or wide - and then to figure...
BioEd Online
Bio Ed Online: Center of Gravity
In the following lesson learners will learn about center of gravity and how the body adjusts to the force of gravity to remain balanced.
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...
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Physics/mechanics (Force and Motion)
A collection of mechanics activities. Many pertain to Newton's laws of motion. Step-by-step directions provided with illustrations. Great for teacher demos or student projects.
PBS
Pbs Kids: Dragonfly Tv: Do It: Balancing Act
An experiment kids can do at home to discover how the center of gravity can affect whether things will balance or not.
Open Curriculum
Open Curriculum: Velocity and Relative Motion
An illustrated article helps physics students learn about center of mass and velocity, and define the concept of inertia.
![A Magic Classroom: Nail Balance Puzzle [Pdf] Activity](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "A Magic Classroom: Nail Balance Puzzle [Pdf] Activity")
Other
A Magic Classroom: Nail Balance Puzzle [Pdf]
In this lesson, students try to balance fourteen nails on the head of one nail by outwitting gravity.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Study Jams! Science: Our Solar System: Gravity & Inertia
A video and a short multiple-choice quiz on the topic of gravity and inertia, and how they work together to keep objects from floating off into space.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Take It From the Top
Students defy gravity by stacking blocks in different ways in this exercise. Other projects are linked to this lesson as well.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Take It From the Top
Play with the center of gravity as you balance a set of blocks in a way that looks impossible.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Balancing Stick
An activity to study how the position of the center of gravity is affected by the distribution of mass of an object. This activity ask students to balance a dowel on their finger and by moving the playdoh around the dowel they see how it...
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Center of Gravity
This activity demonstrates an easy way to find the center of gravity of an object.
NASA
Nasa: The Space Place: What's a Barycenter?
This site from NASA helps in explaining a barycenter. "In the case of the Earth and the Sun, both bodies actually revolve, or spin, around the center of the mass between them. This point is called the barycenter."
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Tightrope Trials
To learn about the concept of center of mass, students examine how objects balance. They make symmetrical cut-outs of different "creatures" and experiment with how they balance on a tightrope of string. Students see the concept of center...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Wow! That Captures It!
Students learn how motion capture (mo-cap) technology enables computer animators to create realistic effects. They learn the importance of center of gravity in animation and how to use the concept of center of gravity in writing an...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Rocking the Boat
The concepts of stability and equilibrium are introduced while students learn how these ideas are related to the concept of center of mass. They gain further understanding when they see, first-hand, how equilibrium is closely related to...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Rocket Me Into Space
One of the exciting challenges for engineers is the idea of exploration. This lesson looks more closely at Spaceman Rohan, Spacewoman Tess, their daughter Maya, and their challenges with getting to space, setting up satellites, and...