This is a guided inquiry discussion to introduce machines and to identify types of simple machines
In this hands-on inquiry activity, students will design and construct an apparatus that will permit an egg to survive a nine foot fall. Students are given limited materials, so they must critically think about the design and improvise strategies during the building of the apparatus
Student teams design, build and test small-sized gliders to maximize flight distance and an aerodynamic ratio, applying their knowledge of fluid dynamics to its role in flight. Students experience the entire engineering design process, from brainstorming to CAD (or by hand) drafting, including researching (physics of aerodynamics and glider components that take advantage of that science), creating materials lists, constructing, testing and evaluating—all within constraints (works with a launcher, budget limitation, maximizing flight distance to mass ratio), and concluding with a summary final report. Numerous handouts and rubrics are provided.
Students use the engineering design process to design and build magnetic-field detectors, and use them to find hidden magnets. Parallels are drawn to real-world NASA missions and how NASA scientists use magnetic field data from planets and moons. The website has video clips, teaching suggestions, a student handout, and a link to the pdf of the Teachers Guide for Mission: Solar System. The Inspector Detector challenge is a series of activities that form a unit in the Mission: Solar System collection. * NOTE: The Teachers Guide does not contain the lesson plan. You will need to click on the Student Handout heading of the website to download the Inspector Detector Challenge Leaders Notes.
This is a set of interactive lecture demonstration questions designed to probe student understanding of single-slit diffraction.
This activity seeks to have students model the process of science by recording quantitative and qualitative attributes of reactants and products in three separate experiments with the purpose of examining the relationship between the original reactant(s) to the final product(s). Students record the mass and volume of reactants and products and independently calculate mathematical relationships between the reactant(s) and product(s). They also record their observations of any physical changes that occur.
After watching a 1940 film clip of the "Galloping Gertie" bridge collapse and a teacher demo with a simple pendulum, student groups discuss and then research the idea of motion that repeats itself specifically the concepts of periodic and harmonic motion. They become aware of where and how these types of motion occur and affect them in everyday applications, both natural (seasons, tides, waves) and engineered (swings, clocks, mechanical systems). They learn the basic properties of this type of motion (period, amplitude, frequency) and how the rearrangement of the simple pendulum equation can be used to solve for gravitational acceleration, pendulum length and gravity. At lesson end, students are ready to conduct the associated activity during which they conduct experiments that utilize swinging Android® devices as pendulums.
Microcontrollers are the brains of the electronic world, but in order to play with one, you must first get it connected! For this maker challenge, students learn how to connect their Arduino microcontroller circuit boards to computers. First, students are walked through the connection process, helped to troubleshoot common pitfalls, and write their first Arduino programs (setup and loop functions, semicolons, camel case, pin 13 LED). Then they are given the open-ended challenge to create their own blinking LED code—such as writing Morse code messages and mimicking the rhythm of a heartbeat. This practice helps students become comfortable with the fundamental commands before progressing to more difficult programs.
This activity is a guided demonstration where students create light up quiz boards to demonstrate electricity vocabulary.
Students are introduced to the concept of simple tools and how they can make difficult or impossible tasks easier. They begin by investigating the properties of inclined planes and how implementing them can reduce the force necessary to lift objects off the ground.
30-page illustrated guide to fundamentals of measurement. This is intended to be a clear, comprehensive overview of effective measurement technique. Intended for advanced high school or introductory college level students. Includes worked examples and problems.
This lesson will serve as an introduction into the world of oceanography. It will give students a taste of this wide field by simply comparing the environments explored in Aurelia. In doing so, it will touch on three key studies in oceanography; ocean salinity, circulation and currents, and wave mechanics! Each section will underscore the importance of physics and mathematics, showing students that studying the ocean is more than biology and ecosystems.
Estimated time required: 1-2 class periods.
Technology required for this lesson: Tablet or Smartphone.
This activity is designed to provide qualitative understanding of the Work-Energy Theorem. Students are expected to have read introductory material regarding the theorem, and are tested on this with a short online quiz prior to class. After a brief discussion a "warm-up" demonstration is conducted with student participation. A question is then posed regarding the height a "Hopper Popper" will reach if launched from a thumb instead of a hard flat surface. After initial responses are presented, discussion groups are formed to achieve consensus and provide justification of conclusions. This is followed by a confirming demonstration with surprising results.
Students learn about video motion capture technology, becoming familiar with concepts such as vector components, magnitudes and directions, position, velocity, and acceleration. They use a (free) classroom data collection and processing tool—the ARK Mirror—to visualize and record 3-D motion. The Augmented Reality Kinematics (ARK) Mirror software collects data via a motion detector. Using an Orbbec Astra Pro 3D camera or Microsoft Kinect (see note below), students can visualize and record a robust set of data and interpret them using statistical and graphical methods. This lesson introduces students to just one possible application of the ARK Mirror software—in the context of a high school physics class. Note: The ARK Mirror is ported to operate on an Orbbec platform. It may also be used with a Microsoft Kinect, although that Microsoft hardware has been discontinued. Refer to the Using ARK Mirror and Microsoft Kinect attachment for how to use the ARK MIrror software with Microsoft Kinect.
This animation from KET's distance learning physics course demonstrates the mathematical formula for a scientific law as it applies to light.
Students investigate air resistance using many objects. No formal lab procedure, just a few simple instructions leaves a guided-inquiry lab activity.
This activity can be conducted in the classroom. The students are given an opportunity to discover the basic concept of balance/counterbalance and how evenly distributed weight affects an object.
This activity is an inquiry where students will design an electrolytic cell that produces work in the form of lighting a bulb.
This learning experience is where students launch a bottle rocket and compare how long the bottle was in the air to how much water is placed in the rocket.
This lab activity allows students to apply their knowledge of Archimedes' Principle by calculating the maximum buoyant force that a ship can produce.