Students will create go-carts and calculate the speed, then change a variable and record the differences in speed.
After conducting the associated activity, students are introduced to the material behavior of elastic solids. Engineering stress and strain are defined and their importance in designing devices and systems is explained. How engineers measure, calculate and interpret properties of elastic materials is addressed. Students calculate stress, strain and modulus of elasticity, and learn about the typical engineering stress-strain diagram (graph) of an elastic material.
This video segment adapted from Discovering Women profiles Fermilab physicist and Harvard professor Melissa Franklin.
Monitor the temperature of a melting ice cube and use temperature probes to electronically plot the data on graphs. Investigate what temperature the ice is as it melts in addition to monitoring the temperature of liquid the ice is submerged in.
Learn about an important physics experiment that uses an invention that manipulates light in this interactive activity adapted from NASA.
Students obtain a basic understanding of microfluidic devices, how they are developed and their uses in the medical field. After conducting the associated activity, they watch a video clip and learn about flow rate and how this relates to the speed at which medicine takes effect in the body. What they learn contributes to their ongoing objective to answer the challenge question presented in lesson 1 of this unit. They conclude by solving flow rate problems provided on a worksheet.
In this video from DragonflyTV, Tiana and Sammy measure, record, and analyze the results of a drop box test to find out how everyday items behave in microgravity.
In this geology activity, students investigate the physical property of mineral cleavage by physically trying to break down a block of halite and describing the results. This lab addresses many misunderstandings non-majors have about the physical properties of minerals and includes a brief write up of their conclusions.
This activity is a mini-lab where students determine relationships between gas laws and temperature, pressure, and volume; particularly Charles and Boyle's Law. The concept of mini-labs originated from Dr. Dan Branan and Dr. Matt Morgan. See mini-labs.org for more details.
Students use LEGOs representing quarks and antiquarks to create molecules
A demonstration for students to conceptualize muon wobble
A hands on activity students can perform to observe the differences in spin between neutrinos and antineutrinos
A hands on activity demonstrating how protons move through a neutrino beam to produce neutrinos
A hands on activity used to represent how high energy wavelength produces better resolution
An introduction to quantum cryptography and an activity demonstrating how it can be used for younger students
A hands on activity to demonstrate how particle scattering works
A hands activity where students can make a standard model chart to visually distinguish masses and characteristics of a variety of fundamental particles
A hands on activity to demonstrate how scientists can infer if a result is due to statistical quirks or actual data
A hands on activity students can perform to demonstrate the phenomena of gravitational lensing
This lesson plan introduces the properties of mixtures and solutions. A class demonstration gives the students the opportunity to compare and contrast the physical characteristics of a few simple mixtures and solutions. Students discuss the separation of mixtures and solutions back into their original components as well as different engineering applications of mixtures and solutions.