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In this Engineering Design Challenge, student teams will design a lunar rover. The students will calculate the velocity of the rovers, illustrate the movement through graphs, and complete written explanations. The LRV that can travel the greatest distance wins this challenge.

Type: Lesson Plan

Use students' competitive natures in this engaging lab on velocity. Students will learn how using a known distance and a measured time for a runner can be used to calculate their velocity. Students will graph the relationship between these two factors to see the correlation as a graphic representation.

Type: Lesson Plan

The teacher brings the concepts presented in physics class to life through the experience of designing, building, and launching rockets. Acting as engineers, students will have the opportunity to match their ingenuity with the limits of the Laws of Physics in order to design a rocket that is aerodynamically sound. They must use their knowledge of Newton's laws, aerodynamic forces, and impulse and momentum to successfully meet the goal set by a control rocket. Their task is to increase the time flight, and altitude of their rocket without the usage of a recovery system.

Recordkeeping in the form of an engineering notebook will be encouraged as a vital tool, and will serve as the summative assessment. Students will be required to make daily entries throughout the duration of the challenge.

Type: Lesson Plan

This will be a lesson designed to introduce students to the concept of 9.81 m/s² as a sort of clock that can be used for solving all kinematics equations where a = g.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a culminating lesson for a unit on Motion. Students will be asked to plan a vacation around Florida that includes 5 destinations. By generating and analyzing their own data students will apply knowledge of distance, displacement, speed and velocity to a real world experience.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use their knowledge of position versus time and velocity versus time graphs to create their own. The graphs they will create will correlate to a story they develop. The hope is students have a better understanding of motion graphs because students are relating the motion graphs to a scenario they have designed.

This lesson does not cover acceleration.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is on motion of objects. Students will learn what factors affect the speed of an object through experimentation with gumballs rolling down an incline. The students will collect data through experimenting, create graphs from the data, interpret the slope of the graphs and create equations of lines from data points and the graph. They will understand the relationship of speed and velocity and be able to relate the velocity formula to the slope intercept form of the equation of a line.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this exploration, students will answer the following essential questions:

1. How does the length of a pendulum impact how long it takes to swing back and forth?
2. How does the amount of mass hanging from a pendulum impact the amount of time to swing back and forth?
3. How can we calculate the value of acceleration due to gravity (g) from the behavior of a moving pendulum (optional activity for math reinforcement)?

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore representing the movement of objects and the relationship between the various forms of representation: verbal descriptions, value tables, graphs, and equations. These representations include speed, starting position, and direction. This exploration includes brief direct instruction, guided practice in the form of a game, and independent practice in the form of a word problem. Students will demonstrate understanding of this concept through a written commitment of their answer to the word problem supported with evidence from value tables, graphs, and equations.

Type: Lesson Plan

The objective of this lesson is to illustrate how a common everyday experience (such as playing pool) can often provide a learning moment. In the example chosen, we use the game of pool to help explain some key concepts of physics. One of these concepts is the conservation of linear momentum since conservation laws play an extremely important role in many aspects of physics. The idea that a certain property of a system is maintained before and after something happens is quite central to many principles in physics and in the pool example, we concentrate on the conservation of linear momentum. The latter half of the video looks at angular momentum and friction, examining why certain objects roll, as opposed to slide. We do this by looking at how striking a ball with a cue stick at different locations produces different effects.

Though not required, students who have been exposed to some physics would benefit most from this video. In mathematically rigorous classes, students can concentrate on the details of vectors and conservation of linear momentum.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is the first in a sequence of grade 9-12 physical science lessons that are organized around the big ideas that frame motion, forces, and energy. It directly precedes resource # 52648 "BIOSCOPES Summer Institute 2013 - Forces." This lesson is designed along the lines of an iterative 5-E learning cycle and employs a predict, observe, and explain (POE) activity at the beginning of the "Engage" phase in order to elicit student prior knowledge. The POE is followed by a sequence of inquiry-based activities and class discussions that are geared toward leading the students systematically through the exploration of 1-dimensional motion concepts. Included in this resource is a summative assessment as well as a teacher guide for each activity.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students should be able to :

• Identify appropriate SI units for measuring speed.
• Compare and contrast average speed and instantaneous speed.
• Interpret position-time graphs.
• Calculate the speed of an object using slopes.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will learn to:

1. Identify changes in motion that produce acceleration.
2. Describe examples of objects moving with constant acceleration.
3. Calculate the acceleration of an object, analytically, and graphically.
4. Interpret velocity-time graph, and explain the meaning of the slope.
5. Classify acceleration as positive, negative, and zero.
6. Describe instantaneous acceleration.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will utilize their knowledge about projectiles to devise a method to launch a water balloon so that it lands on a 1 meter square cloth target at least 25 meters away. If they hit the target with the balloon (not just splash a few drops on it), they receive extra credit on the lab.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will investigate falling objects with very low air friction.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will investigate the motion of three objects of different masses undergoing free fall. Additionally, students will:

• Use spark timers to collect displacement and time data.
• Use this data to calculate the average velocity for the object during each interval.
• Graph this data on a velocity versus time graph, V-t. They find the slope of this graph to calculate acceleration.
• Calculate the falling object's acceleration from their data table and graph this data on an acceleration versus time graph, a-t.
• Use their Spark timer data paper, cut it into intervals, and paste these intervals into their displacement versus time graph.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using inquiry techniques, students, working in groups, are asked to design and conduct experiments to test the Law of Conservation of Energy and the Law of Conservation of Momentum. Upon being provided with textbooks, rulers, measuring tapes, stopwatches, mini-storage containers, golf balls, marbles, rubber balls, steel balls, and pennies, they work cooperatively to implement and revise their hypotheses. With limited guidance from the teacher, students are able to visualize the relationships between mass, velocity, height, gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy, and total energy as well as the relationships between mass, velocity, and momentum.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using inquiry techniques, students, working in groups, are asked to design and conduct an experiment to test Newton's Second Law of Motion. Upon being provided with textbooks, rulers, measuring tapes, mini-storage containers, golf balls, marbles, rubber balls, steel balls, and pennies they work cooperatively to implement and revise their hypotheses. With limited guidance from the teacher, students are able to visualize the direct relationships between force and mass; force and acceleration; and the inverse relationship between mass and acceleration.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will investigate how acceleration of an object is affected by the mass of the object and by the applied force on the object.

Type: Lesson Plan

• In this lesson students, will be able to identify frames of reference and describe how they are used to measure motion.
• Identify appropriate SI units for measuring distances.
• Distinguish between distance and displacement.
• Calculate displacement using vector addition.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will investigate acceleration by releasing a toy car down a ramp.

They will collect data, calculate the velocity of the car as it goes down a ramp, graph this velocity verses time, and then find the slope of the V/T graph. They will understand that this represents the acceleration of the velocity of the car ((v2-v1) = a * (t2-t1)).

They will also plot an acceleration verses time graph (A/T), and use this graph to calculate the velocity of the car and for a certain time interval, A * T = V

Type: Lesson Plan

Students compete with one another to design and build a roller coaster from insulation tubing and tape that will allow a marble to travel from start to finish with the lowest average velocity. In so doing, students learn about differences between distance and displacement, speed and velocity, and potential and kinetic energy. They also examine the Law of Conservation of Energy and concepts related to force and motion.

Type: Lesson Plan

The lesson explores ways for students to describe linear motion and investigate relationships between the velocity, acceleration, and the concepts of vector/scalar quantities.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity students will learn the relationship between:

• Distance and displacement
• Velocity and speed
• Vectors and scalars
• Acceleration

and demonstrate their knowledge through group presentations.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a short unit plan that covers position/time and velocity/time graphs. Students are provided with new material on both topics, will have practice worksheets, and group activities to develop an understanding of motion graphs.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, we learn how insects can fly in the rain. The objective is to calculate the impact forces of raindrops on flying mosquitoes. Students will gain experience with using Newton's laws, gathering data from videos and graphs, and most importantly, the utility of making approximations. No calculus will be used in this lesson, but familiarity with torque and force balances is suggested. No calculators will be needed, but students should have pencil and paper to make estimations and, if possible, copies of the graphs provided with the lesson. Between lessons, students are recommended to discuss the assignments with their neighbors.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a short activity where students are able to determine the height of an elevated railing by using the equations associated with freefall. This lesson may also be appropriate for analyzing graphs related to position/velocity/acceleration versus time.

Type: Lesson Plan

A lesson plan inclusive of three lesson challenges, which encompass space science, engineering, physics and math. Students apply knowledge of object motion by animating sequences of pictures that model a set of physical conditions such as the orbital motion, gravitational force, and relative motion.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will research various types of amusement park rides and use their findings to design a feasible ride of their own. They will summarize their findings and present their ride design to the class. Each student will then write a persuasive letter to a local amusement park describing the reasons their ride design is the best.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this lesson is to explain how sailboats work by exploring basic physics principles. At the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify the forces acting on a sailboat and explain how the combination of these forces results in the forward motion of a sailboat. Students should be familiar with vectors and be able to use them to represent forces and moments, and also should be familiar with using free body diagrams to represent forces and moments. The classroom activity challenges are centered around small-group discussions based on the questions posed before each break. Free body diagrams, or another conceptual representation of his or her answer, should support each student’s solution to the questions posed in the video.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students explore constant velocity through collecting data on a motorized buggy car. They collect data, graph their Displacement - Time (D-T) data to find the slope of the line and thus the velocity of their buggy car. They then formulate the D = V * t equation gotten from their graph and use it to extrapolate variables. Then they plot the Velocity - Time (V-T) to explore finding Displacement through that graph. They formulate V*t = Displacement from this graph. Finally, they use this equation to extrapolate "what if" questions about their buggy car.

Type: Lesson Plan

Jump to it and learn more about how quadratic equations are used in robot navigation problem solving!

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Harley Means discusses the mathematical methods hydrologists use to calculate the velocity of rivers.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Math is important to help you get where you want to go in life, especially if you plan to fly there!

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Can't tell if it's heads or tails with vectors? Try these demos.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

This resource offers content support for teachers with sets of conceptual and numerical problems related to speed and velocity. It includes creative ideas for classroom investigations that integrate statistics. This is part of an online textbook in introductory physics.

Type: Text Resource

NASA's "Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics" provides some general information on the basics of aerodynamics. The site allows users to explore at their own pace and level of interest. The topics available include equations of motion, free falling, air resistance, force, gas properties, and atmosphere. Movies, reading materials, and activities are all available to accommodate a variety of different learning styles.

Type: Text Resource

This video discusses how to figure out the horizontal displacement for a projectile launched at an angle.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial is about projectile motion. This powerpoint lecture discusses the independence of the vertical and horizontal motion of projectiles. Students will be asked to solve problems involving projectile motion of both projectiles fired horizontally and at an angle. This tutorial is geared for advanced students.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial provides the learners with detailed information about forces. Topics covered include Newton's Laws, friction, gravity, balanced and unbalanced forces, vectors, weight, motion and momentum.

Type: Tutorial

This page is from a comprehensive and comprehensible tutorial in physics. Schematic drawings, questions for understanding with the answers, and links to animations are included.

Type: Tutorial

In this video, Paul Anderson explains how to interpret a position vs. time graph for an object with constant velocity. The slope of the line is used to find the velocity. A phet simulation is also included. This in Part 1 in a two part series.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

In this video, Paul Andersen explains how to read a position vs. time graph to determine the velocity of an object., including objects that are accelerating. He also introduces the tangent line. This is the second video in a two part series.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This learning video explores the mysterious physics behind boomerangs and other rapidly spinning objects. Students will get to make and throw their own boomerangs between video segments! A key idea presented is how torque causes the precession of angular momentum. One class period is required to complete this learning video, and the optimal prerequisites are a familiarity with forces, Newton's laws, vectors and time derivatives. Each student would need the following materials for boomerang construction: cardboard (roughly the size of a postcard), ruler, pencil/pen, scissors, protractor, and a stapler.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

Learn more about collisions with the use of a virtual air hockey table. Investigate simple and complex collisions in one and two dimensions.Experiment with the number of discs, masses and initial conditions. Vary the elasticity and see how the total momentum and kinetic energy changes during collisions.

Some of the sample learning goals can be:

• Draw "Before and After" pictures of collisions.
• Construct momentum vector representations of "Before and After" collisions.
• Apply law of conservation of momentum to solve problems with collisions.
• Explain why energy is not conserved and varies in some collisions.
• Determine the change in mechanical energy in collisions of varying "elasticity".
• What does "elasticity" mean?

Type: Virtual Manipulative

Learn about position, velocity and acceleration vectors. Move the ladybug by setting the position, velocity or acceleration, and see how the vectors change. Choose linear, circular or elliptical motion, and record and playback the motion to analyze the behavior.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

• Manipulagte and watch the effects of the forces acting on a baseball
• Control conditions such as height, release velocity, spin, and distance
• View different reference frames of the ball's path

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This virtual manipulative will the students learn about position, velocity and acceleration. Acceleration is the derivative of velocity with respect to time and the velocity is the derivative of position with respect to time. With the elimination of time, the relationship between the acceleration, velocity and position can be represented as x = v2 / 2a. In the stimulation, students will be able to move the man back and forth with the mouse and plot his motion.
Some of the sample learning goals can be:

• Interpret, predict and draw charts (position, velocity, and acceleration) for common situations.
• Provide reasoning used to make sense of the charts.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

The students will drag a red point across the screen in any direction they please and, in the process, will be able to see the forces that are being put on that point at any given moment.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

The students will try to move a red ball into a blue goal without touching the walls. They will have fun competing amongst themselves to get the best time but at the same time they will also be learning about vectors, velocity, and acceleration.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This simulation demonstrates the physics of projectile motion. The user can fire different objects through a cannon, set its speed, angle and mass and observe the resultant motion.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

The students will make ramps and hills for a skateboarder to ride on. Students will explore the relationship between kinetic and potential energy, as well as thermal energy. Several variables, such as gravity, mass of skater, and friction can be manipulated. You can even test your skater in space! Amount of energy can be displayed in pie and bar graphs.

Type: Virtual Manipulative