This is a classroom lab where students will explore the concept of density by investigating how various solids and liquids interact.
This informational text discusses the unique property of ice - that it floats in liquid water. The text is written at a grade two through three This version is a full-color PDF that can be printed, cut and folded to form a book. Each book contains color photographs and illustrations.
This informational text discusses the unique property of ice - that it floats in liquid water. Students focus on real-world examples and how ice is necessary for life in the polar regions. The text is written at a grade two through grade three reading level. This is a PDF containing the informational text and a glossary.
This informational text discusses the unique property of ice - that it floats in liquid water. Students focus on real-world examples and how ice is necessary for life in the polar regions. The text is written at a kindergarten through grade one reading level. This is a PDF containing the informational text and a glossary.
This activity is a guided inquiry on surface tension where students design their own lab experiment based on a focus question, make predictions, collect data and compare the outcome with their predictions.
Students discover fluid dynamics related to buoyancy through experimentation and optional photography. Using one set of fluids, they make light fluids rise through denser fluids. Using another set, they make dense fluids sink through a lighter fluid. In both cases, they see and record beautiful fluid motion. Activities are also suitable as class demonstrations. The natural beauty of fluid flow opens the door to seeing the beauty of physics in general.
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists investigate how farming along the Mississippi River impacts floods and what can be done about it.
Students learn about the fundamental concepts important to fluid power, which includes both pneumatic (gas) and hydraulic (liquid) systems. Both systems contain four basic components: reservoir/receiver, pump/compressor, valve, cylinder. Students learn background information about fluid power—both pneumatic and hydraulic systems—including everyday applications in our world (bulldozers, front-end loaders, excavators, chair height lever adjustors, door closer dampers, dental drills, vehicle brakes) and related natural laws. After a few simple teacher demos, they learn about the four components in all fluid power systems, watch two 26-minute online videos about fluid power, complete a crossword puzzle of fluid power terms, and conduct a task card exercise. This prepares them to conduct the associated hands-on activity, using the Portable Fluid Power Demonstrator (teacher-prepared kits) to learn more about the properties of gases and liquids in addition to how forces are transmitted and multiplied within these systems.
This is an in-class activity that helps introduce the idea of Bernoulli's Principle and fluid of motion. Based on original activity from Adrienne Evans.
During the associated lesson, students have learned about Newton's three laws of motion and free-body diagrams and have identified the forces of thrust, drag and gravity. As students begin to understand the physics behind thrust, drag and gravity and how these relate these to Newton's three laws of motion, groups assemble and launch the rockets that they designed in the associated lesson. The height of the rockets, after constructed and launched, are measured and compared to the theoretical values calculated during the rocket lesson. Effective teamwork and attention to detail is key for successful launches.
This activity is a guided inquiry activity where students take simple measurements and use unit analysis to determine the thickness of a sheet of aluminum foil, the volume of an aluminum atom, and the radius of an aluminum atom.
This is a lab activity to determine the amount of calories in different foods.
The egg-drop activity is designed to help students develop a deeper understanding of the force created by wind resistance and how it interacts with the force due to Gravity. Students will note how surface area affects the resistance of a falling object as Gravity works on it. Students will record and share observations and questions regarding the experiment.
In the first of two lessons of this curricular unit, students are introduced to the concept of friction as a force that impedes motion when two surfaces are in contact. Student teams use spring scales to drag objects, such as a ceramic coffee cup, along a table top or the floor, measuring the frictional force that exists between the moving object and the surface it slides on. By modifying the bottom surface of the object, students find out what kinds of surfaces generate more or less friction. They also discover that both static and kinetic friction are involved when an object initially at rest is caused to slide across a surface. In the second lesson of the unit, students design and conduct experiments to determine the effects of weight and surface area on friction. They discover that weight affects normal friction (the friction that results from surface roughness), but for very smooth surfaces, the friction due to molecular attraction is affected by contact area.
Students use a simple set up consisting of a current carrying wire and a magnet to explore the forces which enable biomedical imaging. In doing so, students run a current through a wire and then hold magnets in various positions to establish and explore the magnetic force acting on the wire. They move the magnets and change the current in the wire to explore how the force changes.
Use this activity to explore forces acting on objects, practice graphing experimental data, and introduce the algebra concepts of slope and intercept of a line. A wooden 2 x 4 beam is set on top of two scales. Students learn how to conduct an experiment by applying loads at different locations along the beam, recording the exact position of the applied load and the reaction forces measured by the scales at each end of the beam. In addition, students analyze the experiment data with the use of a chart and a table, and model/graph linear equations to describe relationships between independent and dependent variables.
This pathway explores the concept of forces. The basic techniques of vector algebra are discussed, which allows for an introduction to Newton's Three Laws of Motion, which describe how objects react when forces are applied to them. The pathway concludes with a series of questions for students to test their understanding.
In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn how the forces of gravity and air resistance affect the motion of falling objects.
Students conduct several simple lab activities to learn about the five fundamental load types that can act on structures: tension, compression, shear, bending and torsion. In this activity, students play the role of molecules in a beam that is subject to various loading schemes.
This media-rich essay from NOVA Online describes the challenges of forecasting volcanic eruptions and includes information about specific cases.