Pennsylvania Department of Education
Light the Bulb!
Third graders investigate electrical circuits and how light bulbs are powered. In this electricity and power lesson, 3rd graders study the vocabulary necessary which includes the different types of circuits, electrical currents, and...
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Physical Setting: Physics Exam 2004
Twelve pages of mostly multiple-choice questions comprise this comprehensive New York Regents physics exam. It covers an entire year's worth of physics curriculum and requires about three hours for completion. Review the questions to...
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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.
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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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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.
Teach Engineering
Pushing it Off a Cliff
Focus on the conservation of energy, specifically looking at gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy, with a lecture that involves having friends throw light objects at each other to determine which has more kinetic energy and...
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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...
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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...
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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...
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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...
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Thinking About Newton's 1st Law
Students discuss the lives of both Aristotle and Newton in order to bring important differences between the two to the forefront. They evaluate two statements about motion and use the ideas from the discussion to determine which...
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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.
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How Wind Works
Second graders investigate the process that creates wind. In this wind lesson, 2nd graders create a wind diagram. Students write an essay to accompany their diagram.
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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.
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Light the Bulb
Students explore electricity. In this power experiment lesson, students determine what is required for lighting a bulb. Students develop an understanding of open and closed circuits, and how energy is formed
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Simple Harmonic Motion
Students explain the theory of simple harmonic motion (SHM) by performing hands-on, practical application experiments.
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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...
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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.
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Energy: Light -- Spinning Color Wheel
Second graders make spinning color wheels to determine how energy effects what colors look like. They paint or color a color wheel with the seven colors of the spectrum. Next, the spin the wheel to determine what happens. In order to...
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Harnessing Solar Energy
Students discover the properties of light (radiant) energy from the sun by experimenting with solar collectors, cookers, and calculators. After a lecture/demo, students create their own solar collectors and test their efficiency.
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Worksheet 32: Kepler's Law
In this math worksheet, students are given 8 questions regarding Kepler's first law of motion. The questions include definitions, short essay explanations, and formulaic expressions.