Students learn about the mechanical advantage offered by pulleys in an interactive and game-like manner. By virtue of the activity's mechatronic presentation, they learn to study a mechanical system not as a static image, but rather as a dynamic system that is under their control. Using a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robotics platform and common hardware items, students build a mechanized elevator system. The ability to control different parameters (such as motor power, testing load and pulley arrangement) enables the teacher, as well as the students, to emphasize and reinforce particular aspects/effects of mechanical advantage.

Blast a Buick out of a cannon! Learn about projectile motion by firing various objects. Set the angle, initial speed, and mass. Add air resistance. Make a game out of this simulation by trying to hit a target.

Blast a Buick out of a cannon! Learn about projectile motion by firing various objects. Set the angle, initial speed, and mass. Add air resistance. Make a game out of this simulation by trying to hit a target.

This activity is a mini lab where students see the effects of gravity on objects falling from a resting state and objects projected out from the same level.

Explore forces and motion as you push household objects up and down a ramp. Lower and raise the ramp to see how the angle of inclination affects the parallel forces. Graphs show forces, energy and work.

Relativity Lite is designed for the General Astronomy sequence (PH 361-2U, SCI 315-6U) whose primary book glosses over Special Relativity and General Relativity while trying to explain the Cosmology that is based on those subjects. Relativity Lite translates the mathematical equations conventional relativity texts rely upon into pictures that are readily understood and contain within them the mathematical essentials. This book provides the comprehensive coverage needed to understand, in sufficient depth, these three linked areas of our reality.

Readers seeking this knowledge on their own, and those in other courses for nonscientists, may also find it helpful.

Students write a biographical sketch of an artist or athlete who lives on the edge, riding the gravity wave, to better understand how these artists and athletes work with gravity and manage risk. Note: The literacy activities for the Mechanics unit are based on physical themes that have broad application to our experience in the world concepts of rhythm, balance, spin, gravity, levity, inertia, momentum, friction, stress and tension.

Learn about rotational forces by watching astronaut Jeffrey Williams spin objects onboard the International Space Station in this interactive activity adapted from NASA.

Students conduct an experiment to determine the relationship between the speed of a wooden toy car at the bottom of an incline and the height at which it is released. They observe how the photogate-based speedometer instrument "clocks" the average speed of an object (the train). They gather data and create graphs plotting the measured speed against start height. After the experiment, as an optional extension activity, students design brakes to moderate the speed of the cart at the bottom of the hill to within a specified speed range.

This episode of STEM in 30 celebrates the 15th anniversary of continuous occupation of the International Space Station and looks at the incredible accomplishments of the last 15 years.

STEM in 30 looks at the four animal groups that achieved flight and inspired humans to develop the ability to fly.

Students learn what a pendulum is and how it works in the context of amusement park rides. While exploring the physics of pendulums, they are also introduced to Newton's first law of motion about continuous motion and inertia.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Scientists have done it again. They’ve verified Einstein’s theory of general relativity using real-life experiments. The latest group to do it is led by researchers at the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics and Cluster for Pioneering Research. And this time they’ve done it using a pair of ultraprecise clocks spaced 450 meters apart: one on the ground, and the other on the observatory floor of Tokyo Skytree, one of the tallest towers in the world. Einstein theorized that massive objects warp space-time, the fabric of existence throughout the universe. One consequence of that is that time runs differently between different gravitational fields: slowly in deep fields and faster in shallow ones. Theoretically, a pair of clocks could capture this time differential. And in real life, that might be easy when the difference in gravitational strength is gigantic. But measuring that difference between two spots on earth would be practically impossible—that is, if it weren’t for optical lattice clocks..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This is a term paper submitted as a series of iterations over the course of a semester. Students, with guidance from the professor, select a region and find papers in the literature describing geophysical data and interpreted results. Each iteration adds a new set of geophysical data (following the sequence covered in the course) and the students gradually build a geophysical cross section across their region of interest. What is effective about this assignment is that it both exposes student to current literature and allows them to compare/contrast the results derived from different geophysical techniques in the same area. This exposes students to the advantages and trade-offs between different techniques, and how combinations of geophysical data are more effective at illuminating crustal properties than any individual technique alone. It also reinforces one of the basic concepts I emphasize in the lectures -- that variation in physical characteristics (density, magnetic susceptibility, seismic velocity, etc.) between sandstone/basalt/granite can be used to characterize them.
Has minimal/no quantitative component

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In this activity, learners build a simple mechanism that regulates the "escape" of energy released by a falling weight by portioning it into discrete amounts. Escapements are found in mechanical clocks, such as those driven by a pendulum or a spring. Learners will build the wrapping form of escapement said to be used in a fifteenth-century German clock.

These are short exercises that allow students practice with concepts in Structural Geology, Tectonics, or Geophysics. (Many of them were designed with Eric Horsman.) The basic idea is to give students opportunities for frequent practice with difficult concepts, many of which require spatial visualization skills. These activities nearly always fit on a half-sheet of paper, and include a visual and verbal component. Instructors may use them for formative assessment or as group activities in class.

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Students explore building a pyramid, learning about the simple machine called an inclined plane. They also learn about another simple machine, the screw, and how it is used as a lifting or fastening device. During a hands-on activity, students see how the angle of inclination and pull force can make it easier (or harder) to pull an object up an inclined plane.

Through a gardening activity, students will use their knowledge of growth to determine the effect of gravity on plant growth.

What does flying a paper airplane have to do with landing the Space Shuttle?