Posted on July 8th, 2019 by Mary Lord
Students in grades 6 to 8 use water balloons and string to understand how the force of gravity between two objects and the velocity of a spacecraft can balance to form an orbit. They see that when the velocity becomes too great for gravity to hold the spacecraft in orbit, the object escapes the orbit and travels further away from the planet.
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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on The Great Gravity Escape
Tags: aeronautical engineering, Class Activities, forces and motion, Grades 6-8, Gravity, orbit, Physics, spacecraft, teachengineering, velocity, water balloons
Posted on June 1st, 2018 by Mary Lord
Teams of high school students learn about energy and energy transformation, then use their knowledge to design and build a paper model of the most fun and exciting roller coaster they can imagine.
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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Paper Roller Coasters
Tags: CCSS, Class Activities, forces, Grades 9-12, Gravity, kinetic energy, Lesson Plan, Mathematics, motion, Newton's Laws, NGSS, Physical Science, potential energy, roller coaster, vectors, velocity
Posted on January 29th, 2016 by Mary Lord
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.
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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
Posted on February 13th, 2012 by Mary Lord
In this service-learning activity, teams of students in grades 10-12 learn the basic principles of fluid dynamics by designing and testing a prototype system to pipe water from a storage tank to a Tippy Tap hand-washing station similar to inexpensive homemade devices used extensively in the developing world.
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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 9-12, Grades 9-12, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Lesson: Tippy Tap Hand-Washer
Tags: Agricultural Engineering, Bernoulli, Class Activities, developing nation, energy conservation, Environmental Engineering, fluid dynamics, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plan, pipe systems, pipes, pressure, sanitation, service learning, velocity, Water