Standard 12: Motion

This lesson's primary focus is to introduce high school students to the concept of Elasticity, which is one of the fundamental concepts in the understanding of the physics of deformation in solids. The main learning objectives are: (1) To understand the essential concept of Elasticity and be able to distinguish simple solids objects based on degree and extent of their elastic properties; (2) To appreciate the utility of the elastic force vs. deformation curve through experiments; (3) To be aware of potential sources of error present in such experiments and identify corrective measures; and (4) To appreciate the relevance of Elasticity in practical applications.

Type: Lesson Plan

This experimental design project deals with real life understanding of being assigned a group task, creating a budget, and providing evidence about the completion of the assigned task. The task in this case is that students are being asked to create a model of a car out of supplied materials and to test these designs. After each trial the students will analyze the data collected and make any improvements that are necessary. The teams will test all modifications and after analyzing the results of their trials, they will create a presentation to the class on how their design performed.

Type: Lesson Plan

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

This one-day investigation begins with a teacher demonstration that introduces students to the nature of catalysts and how they influence chemical reaction rates. Students then formulate hypotheses and collect data on the effects of temperature and concentration of a reactant on reaction rates. Students will be able to graph their data (both individual and group) and compile/analyze class data using GeoGebra.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will graphically determine the spring constant k using their knowledge of Newton's Laws of Motion and Hooke's Law and by determining the period of a weight on a spring undergoing simple harmonic motion.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a hands-on activity that will keep your students engaged while learning about vectors. Students will create a map using provided coordinates that will plot the "Adventures of Shelly the Sea Turtle."

Students are given the opportunity to be creative and distinguish between scalar and vector quantities and assess which should be used used to describe an event.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan covers an exploration of the speed of light, and seeks to answer the question "why can't massive objects move at or above the speed of light?" using a student-created manipulative, algebra skills, and the expanded form of Einstein's famous matter-energy equivalence principle E = mc², which is E² = (mc²)² + (pc)², and the Pythagorean theorem.

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

This inquiry-lead activity that will engage students to discover the distinguishing qualities of scalars and vectors via a treasure hunt.

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

Students will research and take Cornell Notes over Newton's Three Laws of Motion. Once the research is completed, students will create either an animated video or an actual video in which they will correctly name, describe or explain and apply using a real world example of each of the three laws.

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

Through this hands on activity, students will be able to identify the behavior of gases and the relationship between pressure and volume (Boyle's Law), volume and temperature (Charles' Law), and pressure and temperature (Gay-Lussac's Law)

Type: Lesson Plan

This is an application based activity that allows students to question and explore the Conservation of Momentum and how it governs the natural world. It is designed for students who have a firm grasp on physical concepts of nature and mathematical derivations and manipulations. In this activity the teacher will use an Online Simulation titled "2D Elastic Collisions of Two Hard Spheres" to model idealistic elastic collisions and describe how mass and initial velocities can affect the post-collision momentum for each mass. The students will also be introduced to inelastic collisions and will compare these to elastic collisions. Students will fill out the attached lab worksheet and perform calculations based on manipulating the mathematical equation for Momentum Conservation.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students are introduced to the concept of angular momentum using a Predict-Observe-Explain model demonstration involving a rotating stool, small weights, and a bicycle wheel with handles. If you do not have access to these materials, website links with appropriate videos are provided in the teacher materials.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is an inquiry based activity that encourages student engagement with relevant lab procedures and class discussions. It is designed for students to explore and discover relationships about the Conservation of Momentum through a meaningful lab and with the guidance of teacher led discussions. In this activity, students are able to visualize how momentum occurs and how variable masses affect the momentum and velocity of the carts.

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

This lesson provides an inquiry based approach that allows students to discover Newton's 3rd Law. In this lesson, students will use force sensors to measure the magnitude and direction of paired forces. The lab provides multiple experiments that allow the students to observe the magnitude and direction of paired forces for different situations. Upon completing the lab, the teacher can debrief the lab using class data to come up with a consensus for a definition for Newton's 3rd Law. Possible extensions of the lesson include using Newton's 3rd Law to design bottle rockets, or research the rocketry design process at firms such as NASA.

This lesson covers Newtons Third Law only of standard SC.912.P.12.3.

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

• Students will investigate the three phases of water by measuring the temperature changes to ice as heat is applied and they record temperature changes.
• Students will graph the data (y) temperature and (x) time and connect the points to show what happens to temperature as water changes phases.
• Students will write a paragraph explaining how this process works.

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

This is a lab activity focusing on Newton's Second Law of Motion. Students will investigate how both mass and force affect the acceleration of an object.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a fun way to introduce Boyle's Law to students. Predict-Observe-Explain models are used to encourage students to think about what will happen to the volume of four different objects (balloon, marshmallow, cotton ball, and penny) when they are placed into a bell jar and the air is removed. They are then challenged to come up with an explanation for their observations. Students are surprised by the outcomes and excited by some of the results.

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

This MEA is about space exploration. Students will review data on six extrasolar planets and determine which one would be most feasible to explore first.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA requires students to design a custom snowboard for five Olympic athletes, taking into consideration how their height and weight affect the design elements of a snowboard. There are several factors that go into the design of a snowboard, and the students must use reasoning skills to determine which factors are more important and why, as well as what factors to eliminate or add based on the athlete's style and preferences. After the students have designed a board for each athlete, they will report their procedure and reasons for their decisions.

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 one-two day lab will allow students to collect data on temperature, volume, and rate for a reaction in a closed system. Heat speeds up the reaction, altering both volume and rate due to an increase in energy. Students will be able to graph their own lab group's data and compile class data if Google docs is available. They can then look at correlations between temperature, volume, and rate of reaction.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to be part of a sequence of lessons. It follows resource 52937 "BIOSCOPES Summer Institute 2013 - Motion" and precedes resource 52910 "BIOSCOPES Summer Institute 2013 - Mechanical Energy." This lesson uses a predict, observe, and explain approach along with inquiry based activities to enhance student understanding of Newton's three laws of motion.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to be part of a sequence of lessons. It follows CPALMS Resource #52705 "BIOSCOPES Summer Institute 2013 - States of Matter" and precedes CPALMS Resource #52961 "BIOSCOPES Summer Institute 2013 - Atomic Models." The lesson employs a predict, observe, explain approach along with inquiry-based activities to enhance student understanding of properties aqueous solutions in terms of the kinetic molecular theory and intermolecular forces.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to be part of a sequence of lessons. It follows CPALMS Resource #52957 "BIOSCOPES Summer Institute 2013 - Thermal Energy" and precedes CPALMS Resource #52961 "BIOSCOPES Summer Institute 2013 - Solutions." The lesson employs a predict, observe, explain approach along with inquiry-based activities to enhance student understanding of states of matter and phase changes in terms of the kinetic molecular theory.

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 investigate interacting forces between two objects.

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

The lesson is inquiry based, asking students to investigate phase changes and kinetic molecular theory. They are to measure and graph the heating of water while correctly analyzing how the particles kinetic energy changes through each phase change.

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

Chemical reaction rates can differ when different factors are present. The lesson focuses on the main rate changing contributors: temperature, concentration, surface area, and catalysts. Students are intended to learn through several inquiry based lab stations with minimal teacher guidance. The labs are of thought and observational base with little complexity in construction.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a largely self-paced unit for students to learn the basics of Momentum as well as the Law of Conservation of Momentum. Students complete two investigative exercises (one hands-on, the other virtual). They then are directed to read a website (or a textbook could be substituted) and take notes with the teacher"s support as needed. After taking their own notes, students complete a worksheet to practice calculations involving the Law of Conservation of Momentum. At the end of the unit, students take a traditional summative assessment with True/False, multiple-choice, and fill-in-the-blank questions along with a calculations section. Note that this lesson only covers the basics of linear momentum and does not include impulse or angular momentum.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is an extended lesson that will take approximately two to three weeks to complete. Students begin by completing an inertial balance lab, which includes a graphing and data analysis component, in order to introduce them to Newton's First Law of Motion. Students then go on to complete a Webquest to reinforce Newton's First Law and to learn about Newton's Second Law and Free-body Diagrams. The class then participates in a demonstration to learn Newton's Third Law of Motion. Students then either complete a worksheet to practice calculations involving Newton's Second Law or an inquiry lab to understand how Newton's Laws can be used to build Balloon Rocket Cars (or both!). Finally, students complete an original project by writing a letter, recording a song, or creating a poster to demonstrate their mastery of Newton's Three Laws of Motion.

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

This is a "gold star" lesson plan that incorporates the virtual manipulative "Gas Properties" from PhET (University of Colorado). Students investigate properties of gases, represent predictions graphically, test predictions using the manipulative, and then extend the knowledge into real investigations (i.e. non virtual).

Type: Lesson Plan

Students investigate how bicycle helmets protect the brain from forces related to sudden changes in motion.

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

This lesson focuses on two elements: understanding Newton’s laws of motion, and how to use Newton’s laws to create force diagrams. This lesson also demonstrates how to incorporate requirements of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) into a physics lesson. It uses a discrepant event (phenomenon) to model forces at work on an object resulting in motion. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Shape Memory Alloys are metals that can return to or 'remember' their original shape. They are a cutting edge application for Chemistry, Physics, and Integrated Science. The activities in this lesson work well for the study of forces, Newton's Laws, and electricity in physics. They also lend themselves well to crystalline structures, heat of reaction, and bonding in chemistry. In addition, students could study applications for the materials in the medical and space industries.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn about Newton's third law of motion on the basketball court in this interactive tutorial.

This is part 3 in a 4-part series. Click below to explore the other tutorials in the series. 

• Part 1: Discovering Newton's First Law of Motion: On the Soccer Pitch
• Part 2: Discovering Newton’s Second Law of Motion: On the Softball Diamond
• Part 4: Newton’s Insight: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about Newton's second law of motion on the softball diamond with this interactive tutorial.

This is part 2 in a 4-part series. Click below to explore the other tutorials in the series.

• Part 1: Discovering Newton’s First Law of Motion: On the Soccer Pitch
• Part 3: Discovering Newton’s Third Law of Motion: On the Basketball Court
• Part 4: Newton’s Insight: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Take to the soccer pitch to learn about Newton's first law of motion in this interactive tutorial.

This part 1 in a 4-part series. Click below to explore the other tutorials in the series.
Part 2: Discovering Newton’s Second Law of Motion: On the Softball Diamond (Coming soon)
Part 3: Discovering Newton’s Third Law of Motion: On the Basketball Court (Coming soon)
Part 4: Newton’s Insight: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (Coming soon)

Type: Original Student Tutorial

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.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Betta Jerome, a senior mechanical engineer with the United States Air Force, explains force, motion, and momentum in the context of a military projectile weapons testing environment.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Watch as Dr. Simon Capstick drops fruit from a tall building to demonstrate the effect of mass, gravity, and air friction on falling objects.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Why can't you put Ethanol fuel in a boat motor?

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

We'll be looking at the role of pitch, number of blades and material for outboard motor props as it relates to the propulsion of a boat

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Senior Airman Jennifer Tisdale explains the role of vectors in management of flight traffic for the United States Air Force.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

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

When you watch this video, your knowledge related to flight and physics will really take off!

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Factors to consider when making pottery on the wheel are discussed, but not in a way that would make your head spin.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

After you watch this video on coffee brewing and physics, let the information percolate.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Under pressure to learn how physics and coffee go together? Watch this espresso video and find out.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Where have you bean? Didn't you know that chocolate is a delicious topic for discussing phase change?

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

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

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Have you ever wanted to fly paper airplanes for fun while learning about the science of flight? Here's your chance! Produced with funding from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Let's get rolling and explore the physics behind rolling cars! Make sure you stay on track. Produced with funding from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

This website offers a number of experiments that teachers can use to demonstrate or show to the students how chemical reaction rates can be affected by different factors.

Type: Project

This web page provides an elementary introduction and overview of momentum and a discussion of recoil, conservation and energy. A lesson plan and related pages are also linked to this page. This is part of an extensive web site, "From Stargazers to Starships", that uses the topics of space exploration and space science to introduce topics in physics and astronomy. Translations in French, Italian and Spanish are available.

Type: Student Center Activity

The heat of fusion of water is the energy required to melt one gram of ice. In this lab, your students will use experimental evidence to approximate the heat of fusion of water. They'll also compare the energy needed to cause a change of state to the energy needed to change temperature with no change of state. This lab can be used at the middle or high school level, depending on your learning objectives and how you introduce and debrief the activity.

Type: Teaching Idea

This site provides instruction, teacher plans, student activities, and resources. It has multiple links and recommendations for expanding lessons.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Most students are familiar with the four most common states of matter, but what about the 5th state of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC for short)? This article explains what a BEC is and how researchers are exploring this unique state of matter.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. This article is about the physics of time travel, including basic explanations of Einstein's relativity theories. The text investigates the plausibility of both "forward" and "backward" time travel using current scientific knowledge.

Type: Text Resource

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

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article demonstrates the importance of hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels and announces the discovery of a new catalyst useful in splitting water molecules to obtain hydrogen gas. Current methods of obtaining hydrogen from natural gas, for example, release carbon and consume large amounts of energy. This new catalyst opens the possibility of making hydrogen production much less expensive and carbon neutral as compared to current technologies.

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

Would a brick or feather fall faster? What would fall faster on the moon?

Type: Tutorial

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

Type: Tutorial

This video tutorial from the Khan Academy explains how to calculate the acceleration of ice down a plane made of ice.

Type: Tutorial

This video tutorial shows how to figure out the components of force due to gravity that are parallel and perpendicular to the surface of an inclined plane.

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 brief tutorial introduces teachers to the construction of free-body diagrams and their use in setting up and solving equations of motion for objects under the influence of one or more forces.

Type: Tutorial

This resource is intended to serve as a concise introduction to vector and scalar quantities for teachers of secondary math and science. It provides definitions of vectors and scalars as well as physical examples of each type of quantity, and also illustrates the differences between these two types of quantities in both one and two dimensions, through determinations of both distance (scalar) and displacement (vector).

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

Students explore the concept that chemical reactions involve the breaking of certain bonds between atoms in the reactants, and the rearrangement and rebonding of these atoms to make the products. Students also design tests to investigate how the amount of products and the rate of the reaction can be changed. Students will also explore endothermic and exothermic reactions.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This lesson provides an introduction to Pressure, Temperature and Gay-Lussac's Gas Law, using as an example the Deflategate controversy that took place in the sport of American Football in January 2015. The main learning objectives are: (1) to define temperature and pressure; (2) to introduce the concepts of absolute pressure and absolute temperature, including the use of Kelvin measurement units; (3) to use Gay-Lussac's law to predict how the pressure of a fixed container of gas, such as a football, will change due to an increase or decrease in temperature; (4) to compare predictions from a physical law with experimental measurements of the same quantity; (5) to introduce the concept of measurement error and to discuss sources of uncertainty in pressure and temperature measurements; and (6) to use the Ideal Gas Law to compute the amount of gas that would need to be added or removed from a fixed volume of gas, held at constant temperature, to achieve a given increase or decrease in pressure.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

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

A 4-minute video in which an Olympic freestyle skier and a physicist discuss the physics behind freestyle skiing.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This video lesson has the goal of introducing students to galaxies as large collections of gravitationally bound stars. It explores the amount of matter needed for a star to remain bound and then brings in the idea of Dark Matter, a new kind of matter that does not interact with light. It is best if students have had some high school level mechanics, ideally Newton's laws, orbital motion and centripetal force. The teacher guide segment has a derivation of centripetal acceleration. This lesson should be mostly accessible to students with no physics background. The video portion of this lesson runs about 30 minutes, and the questions and demonstrations will give a total activity time of about an hour if the materials are all at hand and the students work quickly. However, 1 1/2 hours is a more comfortable amount of time. There are several demonstrations that can be carried out using string, ten or so balls of a few inches in diameter, a stopwatch or clock with a sweep second hand and some tape. The demonstrations are best done outside, but can also be carried out in a gymnasium or other large room. If the materials or space are not available, there are videos of the demonstrations in the module and these may be used.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This learning video describes within an action orientation certain often difficult-to-understand concepts of Newtonian physics. The conservation of momentum is extended to rotational situations, and some of the results may be counter-intuitive! As Professor Lewin states in the opening segment, the prerequisite necessary for this lesson includes familiarity with the concepts of torque, angular velocity, angular momentum and moment of inertia. This interactive video lesson can easily be completed within a 55-minute class period, and the only material required is a blackboard/whiteboard to write on. During the breaks between video segments, students will be asked to think about and discuss: conditions under which angular momentum is either conserved or not conserved; examples in which the moment of inertia changes; a human ice skater and a rough estimation of her moment of inertia; as well as other topics.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This website has a short biography about Sir Isaac Newton. It also reviews his three laws of motion with examples, and ends with a short quiz.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

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

Chemical equilibrium is the condition which occurs when the concentration of reactants and products participating in a chemical reaction exhibit no net change over time. This simulation shows a model of an equilibrium system for a uni-molecular reaction. The value for the equilibrium constant, K, can be set in the simulation, to observe the reaction reaching the constant.

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

This simulation activity will help you understand the concept of vapor pressure which is defined as the pressure of the vapor resulting from evaporation of a liquid (or solid) above a sample of the liquid (or solid) in a closed container. You will also recognize that the vapor pressure of a liquid varies with its temperature, which can be seen with the help of a graph in the simulation.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This virtual manipulative will help the learners understand Coulomb's law which is the fundamental principle of electrostatics. It is the force of attraction or repulsion between two charged particles which is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the distance between them.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This virtual manipulative will help the students to understand that in order for a chemical reaction to take place the reactants must collide. The collision between the molecules must provide the amount of kinetic energy needed to break the molecular bonds and form new ones. Students can control the speed of the simulation to observe the collision and can also reset the initial energy settings to high or low to show that some chemical reactions will not occur in low energy (or low temperature) settings.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This activity will help the students learn about the polymerization. The process of polymerization can be classified into two categories: Chain growth polymerization and step growth polymerization. In this activity students will understand the process of step growth polymerization in which bi-functional or multi-functional monomers react to form polymers.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

The present activity will help the students understand the centrifugal force which is an outward force experienced by an object travelling in a circle. Students will recognize that this force depends on the mass of the object, the speed of rotation, and the distance from the center. It is important to make the students understand that centrifugal force does not actually exit, it appears quite real to the object being rotated and students can understand this concept while playing with the virtual manipulative.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

Vast collection of multimedia resources in mechanics, waves and relativity.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This virtual manipulative will demonstrate the conservation of momentum and energy via a series of spheres. Students will understand that when one sphere on the end is lifted and released, the resulting force travels through the line and pushes the last on upward.

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 simulated activity will help understand and apply Pascal's principle which states that pressure is transmitted undiminished in an enclosed static fluid. This is the theoretical foundation of hydraulic levers.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This virtual manipulative will help the students in understanding the concept of chemical equilibrium which is a state wherein both reactants and products are present at concentrations with no further tendency to change with time. Students will also observe that chemical equilibrium does not mean the chemical reaction has necessarily stopped occurring but that the consumption and formation of substances has reached a balanced condition.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This virtual manipulative will help the students understand what determines the concentration of a solution. They will learn about the relationships between moles, liters and molarity by adjusting the amount of solute, and solution volume. Students can change solutes to compare different chemical compounds in water.
Some of the sample learning goals can be:

• Describe the relationships between volume and amount of solute to concentration
• Explain how solution color and concentration are related.
• Calculate the concentration of solutions in units of molarity (mol/L)
• Compare solubility limits between solutes.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This virtual manipulative will allow you to watch a reaction proceed over time. You can vary temperature, barrier height, and potential energies to note how total energy affects reaction rate. You will be able to record concentrations and time in order to extract rate coefficients.
Additionally you can:

• Describe on a microscopic level, with illustrations, how reactions occur.
• Describe how the motion of reactant molecules (speed and direction) contributes to a reaction happening.
• Predict how changes in temperature, or use of a catalyst will affect the rate of a reaction.
• On the potential energy curve, identify the activation energy for forward and reverse reactions and the energy change between reactants and products.
• Form a graph of concentrations as a function of time, students should be able to identify when a system has reached equilibrium.
• Calculate a rate coefficient from concentration and time data.
• Determine how a rate coefficient changes with temperature.
• Compare graphs of concentration versus time to determine which represents the fastest or slowest rate.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This virtual manipulative will allow you to explore what makes a reaction happen by colliding atoms and molecules. Design your own experiments with different reactions, concentrations, and temperatures. Recognize what affects the rate of a reaction.

Areas to Explore:

• Explain why and how a pinball shooter can be used to help understand ideas about reactions.
• Describe on a microscopic level what contributes to a successful reaction.
• Describe how the reaction coordinate can be used to predict whether a reaction will proceed or slow.
• Use the potential energy diagram to determine : The activation energy for the forward and reverse reactions; The difference in energy between reactants and products; The relative potential energies of the molecules at different positions on a reaction coordinate.
• Draw a potential energy diagram from the energies of reactants and products and activation energy.
• Predict how raising or lowering the temperature will affect a system in the equilibrium.

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

This simulation will provide an insight into the properties of gases. You can explore the more advanced features which enables you to explore three physical situations: Hot Air Balloon (rigid open container with its own heat source), Rigid Sphere (rigid closed container), and Helium Balloon (elastic closed container).

Through this activity you can:

• Determine what causes the balloon, rigid sphere, and helium balloon to rise up or fall down in the box.
• Predict how changing a variable among Pressure, Volume, Temperature and number influences the motion of the balloons.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This virtual manipulative will allow you to visualize the gravitational force that two objects exert on each other. By changing the properties of the objects, you can see how the gravitational force changes.
Some areas to explore:

• Relate gravitational force to masses of objects and distance between objects.
• Explain Newton's third law for gravitational forces.
• Design experiments that allow you to derive an equation that related mass, distance, and gravitational force.
• Use measurements to determine the universal gravitational constant.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This activity will allow you to make colorful concentrated and dilute solutions and explore how much light they absorb and transmit using a virtual spectrophotometer.
You can explore concepts in many ways including:

• Describe the relationships between volume and amount of solute to solution concentration.
• Explain qualitatively the relationship between solution color and concentration.
• Predict and explain how solution concentration will change for adding or removing: water, solute, and/or solution.
• Calculate the concentration of solutions in units of molarity (mol/L).
• Design a procedure for creating a solution of a given concentration.
• Identify when a solution is saturated and predict how concentration will change for adding or removing: water, solute, and/or solution.
• Describe the relationship between the solution concentration and the intensity of light that is absorbed/transmitted.
• Describe the relationship between absorbance, molar absorptivity, path length, and concentration in Beer's Law.
• Predict how the intensity of light absorbed/transmitted will change with changes in solution type, solution concentration, container width, or light source and explain why?

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This simulation allows you to explore forces and motion as you push household objects up and down a ramp. Observe how the angle of inclination affects the parallel forces. Graphical representation of forces, energy and work makes it easier to understand the concept.

Some of the learning goals can be:

• Predict, qualitatively, how an external force will affect the speed and direction of an object's motion.
• Explain the effects with the help of a free body diagram
• Use free body diagrams to draw position, velocity, acceleration and force graphs and vice versa.
• Explain how the graphs relate to one another.
• Given a scenario or a graph, sketch all four graphs.

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

This virtual manipulative allows you to investigate various aspects of gases through virtual experimentation. From the site: Pump gas molecules to a box and see what happens as you change the volume, add or remove heat, change gravity, and more (open the box, change the molecular weight of the molecule). Measure the temperature and pressure, and discover how the properties of the gas vary in relation to each other.

Type: Virtual Manipulative