Mike and Kellie, a team of electrical engineers, demonstrate how to to design a contraption that accurately drops a marble onto a target. The materials needed and general instructions are provided on the website or via a downloadable...

Instructions for series of six activites, a reading of scientific literature, and a choice of six assessments await you in this physics resource. Well-written plans guide you in guiding your pupils to experiment with levers, pulleys,...

Middle school scientists construct a working water wheel from an aluminum pie pan. Because of the sharp edges on the cut aluminum, this activity is for mature learners only. You could have your class compete to see whose wheel can lift...

Have your class explore potential and kinetic energy or conservation of energy. They can make a device called a rollback can. Like magic, the can returns to where it started after it has been pushed away.

A total of 29 word problems furnish practice in solving for work, energy, and force. A few of the questions display diagrams to help learners visualize the systems, and all of them list five choices from which they select the correct...

Wow! Colorful and simple, these 160 slides introduce the various forms of energy, along with a relevant image. Some of the images are animations, which help beginning physical scientists to visualize the flow of electrons or energy! This...

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.

Activate middle schoolers' minds with this physical science activity. Learners vary the diameter of gears and the number of teeth on them to find how energy output is affected. This writeup features well-developed background information...

Elementary school physical scientists explore kinetic mechanical energy by dropping a golf ball on different surfaces. They discuss how human made materials might react to light differently from nature made materials. This lesson plan...

Introduce physical science learners to the forms of energy using this PowerPoint. The concluding slides present scenarios for discussing the transfer of energy from one form to another. Informative text is crisp and attractive, but the...

In this sources of energy worksheet, students complete a concept map and they choose one of the sources of energy in the concept map to research. They create a magazine ad, a newspaper editorial, a newspaper article or any other creative...

In this energy transformation worksheet, students earn extra credit by choosing a energy transforming toy or ride at an amusement park and analyzing the energy transformation involved in its movement. Students draw a diagram to...

Students examine how steamships operate. They describe the necessary energy conversions. They construct a model paddlewheel ship. They use rubber bands as examples of potential and kinetic energy as they unwind and set the models in motion.

Essentially a list of definitions, this slide show will help your students understand the generation of electrical currents using magnets.  There is information comparing the frequencies of currents produced and two slides to detail...

Fifth graders explore energy transfer. In this thermal energy instructional activity, 5th graders stretch rubber bands several times and estimate the band's temperature change. Students identify this action as an example of thermal...

Students test different sized marbles and how fast they can go. In this energy lesson plan, students test different sized marbles going down an incline. They predict which would have the most potential and kinetic energy. After the test,...

In this potential energy worksheet, students determine the potential energy of objects, calculate the work due to conservative forces and the conservation of mechanical energy. This worksheet has 7 problems to solve.

In this muscle system worksheet, 9th graders identify and write the name of each type of muscle associated with the body part listed. Then they label the illustration of the leg showing which muscle contracts and which muscle relaxes.

Students discuss gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy, and the relationship between potential and kinetic energy. They create a working roller coaster from provided materials and criteria then evaluate each roller coaster. They...

In this energy worksheet, students review the different types of energy and determine what form of work that energy provides. Then students give examples of how energy is related to work. This worksheet has 1 graphic organizer and 3...