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Rolling Balls: Mass and Kinetic Energy
Middle schoolers identify the relationship between kinetic energy, mass, and velocity. Then they explain and graph the relationship between kinetic energy and mass. Students also predict the impact of objects of different mass and...
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Going the Distance
Students experiment in small groups to answer the question, "Is there a relationship between ramps and speed?" They apply a formula to calculate the speed of the cars used in the experiment, complete the associate lab report, and...
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Cool Cars
Students travel one at a time in a straight-line path and attempt to maintain a constant velocity. While one student walks, jogs, or runs, the other group members time the "runner" while standing at five-meter intervals along the path....
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"Graphing Your Motion"
Students study the concepts of motion, velocity, and acceleration through graphing their own movement using LoggerPro. They explain the difference between speed and velocity using the weather vane example. They discover the difference...
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Exterior Ballistics
Students explore velocity and trajectory. Using exterior ballistics rules, students predetermine the path of an artillery shell. Given equations and the firing angle, students determine the velocity and horizontal travel. Students...
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Balloon Rocket Race Track
Students discuss "How can we measure (or make it easier to record) the speed, distance or acceleration of the balloon?" They told that they are going to make a balloon racetrack. Pupils use meter sticks to accurately measure length and...
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Hovercraft
Students assess human impact on water quality. They determine how the force of friction retards motion. Pupils describe and measure quantities that characterize moving objects and their interactions within a system: Time, Distance,...
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Kinetic Energy
Young scholars are able to solve kinetic energy problems. They are introduced to kinetic energy. Students are shown examples of how to solve kinetic energy problems using the formula: Velocity= Distance/Time.
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Motion
Sixth graders read about and study motion. They conduct a lab in which they calculate speed using track records at their school. They graph the results and then invite a guest speaker (an officer from the local police department) who...
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Physics: Bounce - Projectile Motion and Collisions
Students conduct and observe experiments in Newtonian mechanics, kinematics, and projectile motion. They analyze the motion of a ball rolling off a table, falling, and then bouncing. Students answer a series of questions analyzing the...
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Pendulum Motion
Students explore questions which cannot be handled with simple pendulums, and examine both the usefulness and the limitations of approximations in science. A Java applet created from a Stella model is included.
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Move It!
Students observe a demonstration presented by the teacher covering different types of energy. They participate in an experiment where they study numerous physics vocabulary words and visit websites that demonstrate examples of these...
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TE Activity: Super Spinners!
Young scholars make spinners to investigate rotational inertia, rotational speed, angular momentum, and velocity. They make two sets of spinners that have different mass distributions and shapes. They complete a worksheet while...
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Crash! Bang!
Young scholars study the physical force of linear momentum by investigating collisions. They analyze the difference between elastic and inelastic collisions. They calculate linear momentum.
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Bombs Away!
Students design and build a device to protect and accurately deliver a dropped egg. They review and study a number of vocabulary words that are associated with this lesson. They work in a small group in order to develop a successful...
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Forces of Nature: The Challenges of River Travel
Students examine how river travel affected the Lewis and Clark expedition. They define gravity, slope, and velocity, conduct a river formations experiment, complete an activity sheet, and watch a video about Lewis and Clark.
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Creating Craters
Students explore parts of an impact crater and compare and contrast craters found in Earth, the Moon, and Mars. Crater formation is modelled and the relationship of mass, velocity, and size of the projectile to the crater formation is...
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Cosmic Wheels
Young scholars build a scale model of the Solar System and determine the time other planets take to travel around the Sun in comparison to the time of the Earth's revolution. The velocity of the planets are also determined in this lesson.
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"Measurement in Motion"
Ninth graders examine the rate of motion and changes in motion using a ramp and a rolling object. They conduct the demonstration, determine the average speed, and describe how a moving object can have zero acceleration and deceleration.
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Acceleration, Drag, Gravity, Motion, Forces, and Friction
Eighth graders build and run mousetrap cars in order to measure distance, time, and mass for their cars. They use these measurements to calculate average speed and kinetic energy, then create a slide show to visually explain how the car...
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Train vs. Car: Who Wins?
Ninth graders conduct an experiment demonstrating what happens when a train hits a car using easily accessible materials. They calculate momentum, velocity, and distance using the appropriate formulas. Then they write an incident report...
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Let's Get Moving
Students participate in sports activities that relate to motion, velocity and momentum. They produce a PowerPoint presentation after researching the activities.
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Up, Up, and Away
Learners study the concepts of speed and velocity and complete practice problems. In small groups, students fly airplanes and record time and distance traveled for each flight. They calculate the speed and velocity of their plane for...
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Activity One Teacher Page: Vehicles In Motion
Students identify variables that affect the system, and specify which variables are independent and which are dependent.