In this activity, teams of middle school students express their creativity while learning the fundamentals of engineering design, sustainability, and the basic physics of forces and motion by building a vehicle out of recycled trash that is capable of transporting liquid over rough terrain with as little spillage as possible.

Note: This activity can be scaled for high school or upper elementary students.

Read More

Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Trash Sliders

Tags: Class Activities, creativity, Earth Day, Engineering Design, Environmental Engineering, forces and motion, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plan, Recycling, STEAM, Sustainability, Trash

Students in grades 5 to 7 use Bernoulli’s principle to manipulate air pressure in a series of fun activities so its influence can be seen on the objects around us.

Read More

Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Fun With Bernoulli

Tags: Aerodynamics, Aeronautics, Automotive engineering, Bernoulli's principle, Class Activities, forces and motion, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans, Mathematics, Physics

Teams of high school students use their understanding of projectile physics and fluid dynamics to calculate the water pressure in squirt guns by measuring the range of the water jets. They create graphs to analyze how the predicted pressure relates to the number of times they pump the water gun before shooting.

Read More

Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 9-12 | Comments Off on A Shot Under Pressure

Tags: Bernoulli, calculations, Class Activities, data analysis, fluid dynamics, forces and motion, Grades 9-12, graph, Mathematics, measurement, Physics, pressure, projectile, Super Soaker, variables, velocity, water gun

Students in grades 1 to 6 follow the engineering design process to build and test a catapult that launches projectiles, such as marshmallow “pumpkins.” They then make changes to improve their launcher’s aim and distance it can hurl the projectile.

Read More

Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Target Practice: Pumpkin Launcher

Tags: catapult, Design, Elementary Education, Engineering Design, forces and motion, Halloween, levers, motions and forces, Physics, simple machines

In this lesson, students in grades 4-12 learn about the history of catapults and how they work. They assemble their own catapult model, making adjustments to improve its performance. Students gain engineering experience while learning principles of physics and working with the scientific processes of experimentation and trial and error.

Read More

Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Lesson: Build a Catapult

Tags: catapult, Class Activities, Engineering in History, forces and motion, Grades 5-12, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plan, Mathematics, Newton's Laws, Physical Science

This lesson teaches students in grades 5-8 about projectile motion through a hands-on activity, an online video from “Science of NFL Football,” and a computer simulation project.

Read More

Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | 2 Comments »

Tags: Class Activities, Football, forces and motion, grades 5-8, Grades 6-8, Internet Resources, NFL Football Lesson, Physics, Science, Sports Engineering, trajectory, vectors

In this activity, late-elementary school students work in small groups to build a roller coaster with at least one loop and one jump, demonstrating how potential energy transforms into kinetic energy. Students observe the relationship of height to potential energy and the resulting kinetic energy.

Read More

Filed under: Class Activities, Grades K-5 | Comments Off on Class Activity: Build a Roller Coaster

Tags: Class Activities, forces and motion, friction, Grades 3-6, Grades K-5, kinetic energy, Mechanical engineering, roller coaster