Curated OER
Polarized Light
Students study polarized light and explain how they know it is polarized. In this polarized light instructional activity students complete a lab that shows them how light can be polarized.
Curated OER
Energy for Free: Perpetual Motion Machines
Young scholars observe the "drinking bird" perpetual motion machine and critically examine the designs of other so-called perpetual motion machines. They use this experience to create their own definition of conservation of energy.
It's About Time
Exploring Energy Resource Concepts
Please turn off the lights to conserve energy. Or not, after all energy is always conserved. This first lesson in an eight-part series includes three parts. Part A contains one hands-on activity and two inquiry-based experiments on heat...
Curated OER
Bronx Cheer Bulb
If you chew or make a "raspberry" while viewing an LED light source, the light will appear to wiggle or flicker. It is not because of the light itself, but because of the vibration of your skull! Have your physics class give this a try...
Curated OER
What things let Light Pass Through?
Second graders classify objects according to how well light can pass through them and predict how well objects will transmit light. They experiment with objects to verify predictions while collecting, recording, and interpreting data...
Curated OER
Help Wanted: A Lighting Engineer For Popular Rock Group
Students are assigned to groups, and determine each member's role in the group. They will design an experiment to determine a way to produce the three primary and five secondary colors. Students discuss color and mood. They listen to a...
Curated OER
To See or Not to See: The Colors of Light
Seventh graders describe and conduct an experiment that identifies the physical properties of light. They explore sources of visible light and an electromagnetic spectrum. Students explain the conversion of one form of energy to another.
Curated OER
How Do The Colors of Light Mix?
Learners investigate the mixing of light. They form a hypotheses to reason why color changes occur and they write conclusions and ask new questions arising from the investigation. Students identify the primary and complementary colors of...
Curated OER
Motion Commotion!
Students explore the drawings of Rube Goldberg to design and construct a simple machine. They discuss simple machines, and using various materials and toy parts, design and construct a "Rube Goldberg" style machine to ring a bell.
Curated OER
Pushes and Pulls
Learners examine different types of movement and causes that may affect those movements. In this online interactive forces and motion lesson, students use toy cars to observe push and pull and then make predictions and collect data...
Curated OER
Spin the Saltine!
Students investigate chemical energy. In this physical science lesson, students blow on saltine crackers to demonstrate how chemical energy in food can be converted to motion. Students compare the saltine cracker experiment to how...
Curated OER
Rocket Activity
Students explore Newton's Second Law of Motion. In this rocket activity lesson, students experiment with Newton's Second Law of Motion as they use a slingshot device to force a car to move.
Curated OER
Reflecting Light
Students are introduced to the reflective properties of light and use mirrors to make light from a source reflect onto a specific target. They take turns and record the amount of time it took to correctly reflect the light.
Curated OER
Simple Harmonic Motion
Students explain the theory of simple harmonic motion (SHM) by performing hands-on, practical application experiments.
Curated OER
Meet the Neighbors: Planets Around Nearby Stars
Students explain why a transiting planet causes a periodic dimming in the light from its parent star. They determine the radius of a planet, and its orbital distance, by analyzing data and manipulating equations. Students compare the...
Curated OER
Falling Motion
Students design and conduct an experiment on Galileo's Rule of Falling Bodies. In this physics lesson, students collect and analyze data. They create a presentation and share it with the class.
Curated OER
Me And My Shadow
Students investigate the concept of a shadow. They design a tool to create shadows for an experiment. They make observations and record the size and shape of shadows. The lesson contains background information for the teacher to deliver...
Curated OER
Forces in Action
Second graders experiment to understand how force is effected by friction. In this forces in action instructional activity, 2nd graders view a website to simulate what happens when the height of a ramp is changed. Students participate...
Physics Classroom
Action-Reaction Lab
Computer-interfaced motion detectors are required to carry out this inquiry. It is a new twist on exploring motion with plunger carts: they are set back-to-back and then propelled away from each other. Their velocities are measured, and...
Purdue University
Design of a Door Alarm
How does electricity work? Budding scientists explore the concepts of electrical currents and open and closed circuits with class discussion and a hands-on activity using a battery to turn on a light bulb. Learners also make predictions...
Curated OER
Dancing Levels in Space
Students practice mirroring human moves by performing a dance in class. In this physical education lesson, students utilize different spaces around them to perform a dance expressing their full motion. Students cooperate in pairs or...
NASA
Photons in the Radiative Zone: Which Way Is Out? An A-Maz-ing Model
Can you move like a photon? Young scholars use a maze to reproduce the straight line motion of a photon. The second in a six-part series of lessons on the sun has learners measure angle of incidence and refraction to determine the path...
Curated OER
Einstein's Big Idea
Students investigate the meaning of c2 in E=mc2 by measuring the energy delivered by an object falling at different velocities. They state that kinetic energy is the energy of an object in motion. Students illustrate how kinetic energy...
Curated OER
Traveling Bowls
Pupils investigate the relationship between force and motion while conducting an experiment to answer the question,"How do objects move?". In small groups, they predict how many washers are needed to pull a bowl across a finish line.