PHET
Projectile Motion
Have you ever wanted to shoot someone out of a canon? This simulation gives you that chance! In addition to a human, you can shoot a car, a piano, a cannon ball, and many other items. Scholars set the angle, initial speed, mass, air...
Curated OER
Whirligig Lollapalooza
Using a cut-out template of a whirligig, emerging engineers experiment with flight behavior. After you teach them the concepts of force, air resistance, and lift, they discuss what variables on the whirligigs might be changed in order to...
Curated OER
Air Resistance and Friction
Physics learners experiment with three laboratory activities to learn about air resistance and friction. First, they use a hair dryer to move different sized spheres to determine the relationship between cross-sectional area and air...
Purdue University
Exploring Whirligigs
What's that silly thing spinning in the wind? It's a whirligig! Explore wonderful windy whirligigs with a STEM-based unit that teaches the science and concepts behind these gigs. Scholars discover how gravity and air resistance...
Museum of Science
Parachute Design
Deploy an activity that requires deploying a parachute. An engaging lesson challenges learners to design and construct parachutes. They test out their creations and consider what changes should be made to improve the parachute's...
Las Cumbres Observatory
Return to Earth: Build a Lander
Earth to all instructors: Here's a resource to use about spacecraft. After learning about gravity and air resistance, scholars create landers with padding to help capsules land safely on Earth. They test their creations by placing a raw...
Teach Engineering
Flight of the Fruit: Weight, Gravity and Imagination
Beware the falling fruit. Scholars design and build parachutes that can help protect fruit as it falls. They test out their creations, learning about gravity, weight, air resistance, and measurement concepts along the way.
Mascil Project
Parachute Food Drop
Drop a perfect project into your lesson plans. Groups use different building materials to create models of parachutes for food drops. After testing out their prototypes, they make improvements to their designs.
Magic of Physics
Springs Lab
Stretch young minds in their understanding of springs! Add an interesting interactive to promote awareness of factors such as stiffness, ground friction, and air resistance. The resource contains custom controls, allowing individuals to...
Colorado State University
Why Do Raindrops Sometimes Land Gently and Sometimes with a Splat?
A mouse can fall from large heights without injury! Air resistance is a large influence on small falling objects. In an exploratory lesson, young scholars build a raindrop bottle to compare the falling rate of different-sized objects.
CK-12 Foundation
Cliff Diver
Cliff diving is more than an adrenaline rush ... it's a lesson in physics! Scholars adjust the height of a cliff and plot the resulting velocity and position over time on graphs. They also can incorporate air resistance to monitor the...
Urbana School District
Forces
Is your class struggling with Newton's Second Law? Then show them a presentation that covers everything physics scholars need to know about forces. Starting with gravity, the slides focus on Newton's Laws of Motion, and end with an...
NASA
Touchdown
Individuals design and build a set of shock absorbers to protect their astronauts when they land. Using a limited amount of supplies, pupils build a system that will keep two large marshmallows from flying out of a cup when it lands...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Playing with Parachutes
This lesson certainly will not be a drag! Little engineers design parachutes that make use of air resistance and, as a result, slow the descent of the payload as much as possible. It is an opportunity to teach about many motion concepts:...
Curated OER
Lesson 3: Acceleration and Force
A nine-page physics resource supports your lesson on acceleration. A step-by-step lesson plan walks you through the materials you need, the background information, steps for leading experimentation, and the explanation of the results....
Curated OER
Forces
This series of four slides helps define the terminology that is essential to the study of Newtons Second Law. Notetaking and review will be easier if supported by these factsheets.
Curated OER
Forces
Words, words, words! Each of these slides gives a wordy definition of a particular force, along with an example or diagram detailing that force. No photos or diagrams are shown, so make sure to demonstrate each concept for the class as...
Curated OER
Labeling Forces Correctly!
Define six common forces: propulsion, air resistance, water resistance, friction, gravity, and upthrust. A picture of a Smart Car is displayed with arrows showing all of the forces acting on it when it is motion. A picture of a rubber...
Curated OER
Friction
An excellent presentation provides a thorough description of what friction is, how it works, what it's uses are, and how friction can be reduced. Some excellent discussion should follow this PowerPoint in your science class.
Curated OER
Forces and Motion
Students build parachutes for chicken eggs. In this physics lesson, students describe the forces acting on a falling object. They predict which of the three parachute models they made has the best chance of keeping the egg intact after a...
Curated OER
Gravity Gets You Down
Students design an experiment to investigate how objects with different masses fall. In this physics lesson, students predict how these objects will fall in a vacuum tube. They write a report explaining experimental results and conclusion.
Curated OER
Parachutes
Students make a parachute. In this air resistance lesson, students create a parachute using materials they think will work the best. Students try out their parachutes, noting which one worked the best. Students discuss how the size,...
Curated OER
Falling Objects
High schoolers examine the velocities of two different falling objects. They produce distance vs. time and velocity vs. time graphs using a Motion Detector and a CBL 2 to collect experimental data. Learners analyze and interpret the...
Curated OER
Force and Acceleration
In this force and acceleration instructional activity, students solve 3 problems about moving objects, the forces working against them, the mass and their acceleration. Students determine if 6 statements about a falling elephant and a...