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Topsy Turvey Tides
Students explore ocean tides. They research how the sun, moon and earth affect the tides. Students draw a diagram illustrating low tides and high tides. They discuss the affect of gravitational pull on the oceans.
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Four Forces of Flight
Students explore the four forces of flight. They investigate the four forces of flight: lift, drag, thrust and weight (gravity). They experiment with flight-testing various objects commonly found around the house and constructing paper...
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Balanced Forces
Students are able to explain why football running backs benefit from having a lower center of gravity when opponents are trying to tackle them. They explain why racing cars are designed to have a low center of gravity. Students explain...
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Elastic Racquet
Students discover the science behind a tennis racket by looking at a simple toy that works in a similar way. After looking at the related mathematical equations, students experiment with the simple toy to find the spring constant k by...
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Newton's Laws 8th Grade Activities
Eighth graders experiment with Newton's Laws by comparing the falling of different objects with different masses. Students work in teams and rotate through four different stations recording their hypotheses and observations as they go.
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The Elastic Racquet
Students use this introductory lab using a tennis racquet, however it is very difficult to study because of the strings and the racquet stretch so little and so quickly during a match that students were unable to make simple...
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Hang Time
Students discuss how all objects fall at the same rate and vertical motion is independent of the horizontal motion. Students apply this information to center of mass activities before solving equations.
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What Goes Up Must Come Down!
Learners hypothesize about the nature of falling objects, design an experimental test to answer the question using everyday objects, analyze data to form conclusions, and infer that mass does not affect the speed of falling objects. This...
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Lesson-Mass and Weight
Student identify the three stationary positions, on the Earth, on the Moon, and in a house floating atop the cloud layers of Jupiter. They also identify the three orbiting positions, orbiting the Earth, orbiting the Moon, and orbiting...
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Peak Performance
Students design and build a car that is capable of traveling across the floor quickly, and also up a steep ramp.
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LEGO Balance
Learners design and build a balance using LEGO, string, and a set of standard metric weights.
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Zigzag Seeds
Students observe the effects of gravity on seeds. Students place seeds in various orientations and record their growth to determine how gravity affects the seeds' growth.
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How Do Things Fall?
Students observe falling objects. They discover the rate of falling is based on air resistance and not the weight of the objects. They discuss how engineers use this type of information to design aerodynamic shapes.
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Rocking the Boat
Students work together to discover the concepts of stability and equilibrium. They examine how equilibrium is related to an item's center of mass. They create their own action scene in a literacy activity.
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Perching Parrot
Students explore the concepts of center of mass and static equilibrium by seeing how non-symmetrical objects balance. They also analyze why all forces on an object must cancel out exactly for an object to be stationary.
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Paperplane Flying Circus
Young scholars create paper airplanes. They compare and contrast the airplanes created in class and test them out. They adjust their airplanes until they all fly. They discuss the forces that allow flight to occur.
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Motion Through the Ages
Eighth graders conduct internet research to produce a timeline of man's growth in understanding of concepts of motion and planetary motion through history.
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Study of Gravity Scientists
Eighth graders research scientists that have made major contributions to the study of gravity and create a timeline of these scientists and events.
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Jungle Gym Drop
Students drop a variety of objects from a jungle gym to explore how different shapes, sizes, and masses relate to forces and motion.
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Siphon Pump
Learners determine the basic types of pumps and how they work in terms of pressure, velocity, and elevation differences. They build two examples of gravity-driven water pumps.
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Pumps
Students examine the basic types of pumps. They build a gravity-driven water pump and solve a mystery using their knowledge of pressures and pumps.
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Gravity Launch
Students use an online interactive to launch a rocket from earth. They have control over the angle and thrust of the rocket to discover the relationship between the two.
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Gravity
Seventh graders progress through the Science Court: Gravity CD-ROM program. They read about and discuss how gravity was discovered. They complete review worksheets in preparation for the test.