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Slam On the Brakes!
Fifth graders study the concept of momentum and its application by Newton in his studies. They view a demonstration and complete an experiment with toy cars on a racetrack that shows them the properties of momentum and how velocity and...
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FORCES, MOTION, AND ENERGY
Eighth graders engage in a variety of activities in order to investigate the basic concepts of physics. They read and answer questions in a written text. This is only one type of activity that is part of many others.
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Gravity In The Universe
Students assess and explore gravity in the Universe via several short video lessons. They analyze why this science matters and the history of Sir Isaac Newton's law of gravity. A variety of questions are asked within this lesson for each...
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Rover Landing Design Challenge
Students examine the concepts of forces and motion. They work together to design protective devices for their egg rovers as they are dropped from a specific height. They record their observations and discuss.
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Cosmic Ray Momentum
Students describe how cosmic rays achieve high kinetic energy via conservation of momentum.
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Lab for Truss Design and Testing
Students design and build their own truss. In this physics lesson, students calculate the forces and maximum load. They complete a full scale diagram of their design.
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Pop Rockets
Middle schoolers study Newton's Third Law of Motion which involves action and reaction. They discover what makes a rocket go and then design and construct a rocket that will launch the furthest using the pressure created by an antacid...
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The Physics of Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air
Young scholars study hummingbirds and how they use Newton's law. In this motion activity students complete several activities and view videos of hummingbirds.
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Energy: Light -- Spinning Color Wheel
Second graders make spinning color wheels to determine how energy effects what colors look like. They paint or color a color wheel with the seven colors of the spectrum. Next, the spin the wheel to determine what happens. In order to...
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Rocket Me into Space
Fourth graders study the concept of thrust and how it propels rockets into space. They discover why airplanes cannot travel into space while considering the engineering techniques use in designing rockets. They look at how space...
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Scientist/ Webelos Activity Book
In this physical science instructional activity, students write short responses for each scientific law in 14 different questions to obtain a merit badge.
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Let's Outrage the Bull
Students study kinetic and potential energy. In this energy lesson, students in grades K-2 understand the differences between kinetic and potential energy. Students in grades 3-5 demonstrate that kinetic and potential energy. Students in...
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Investigation 1 - Push and Pull
Third graders study the forces of push and pull on motion
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Falling Objects
High schoolers examine the velocities of two different falling objects. They produce distance vs. time and velocity vs. time graphs using a Motion Detector and a CBL 2 to collect experimental data. Learners analyze and interpret the...
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Electricity and Magnets
In this physics review worksheet, students compare average and instantaneous speed, review Newton's laws, electricity, and magnets. This worksheet has 12 fill in the blank, 8 short answer questions, and 6 problems to solve.
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Speed
Fifth and sixth graders practice working in pairs to determine whether they can walk with constant speed. They test themselves, collect their data, draw graphs with their data collected, manipulate the data, and then draw conclusions...
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Forces and Acceleration Unit
Students investigate that an unbalanced force, acting on an object, changes it speed or path of motion or both, and know that if the force always acts toward the same center as the object moves, the objects path may curve into an orbit...
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Was Kepler Correct?
Students investigate the elliptical orbit around the Sun. They use the information gathered to measure the distance to the Sun from the closest orbital point and the farthest orbital point.
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Skateboard Science
Students investigate how skaters can turn in midair. In this physics instructional activity, students relate Newton's Laws to skateboarding. They carry out the maneuver with the help of their classmate.
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Momentum
Students learn the concepts of momentum and its conservation, using the recoil of a cannon as an example. They examine how momentum is a vector, allowing its conservation to be applied to problems in 2 and 3 dimensions.
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The Seasons
Discover the change of the seasons by modeling the Earth-Sun system. Learners model the orbit of the Earth around the sun and explore how and why the patterns of winter and summer occur.
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Bottle Rocket
Young scholars construct and launch a simple bottle rocket. Working in teams, they construct a simple bottle rocket from 2-liter soft drink bottles and other materials.
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Circle of Pong
Students, in groups, use given materials to devise a way to deposit a ping-pong ball into a paper cup that is located in the middle of a 6-foot diameter circle, while standing outside the circle.
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Engineering Lessons Adapted for Special Education
Modifying engineering lessons from NASA makes them accessible to a wider variety of learners.