In this lesson, students investigate the relationship among mass, acceleration and force, as described in Newton's laws of motion. Students will work in collaborative teams to use a wooden car and rubber bands to toss a small mass off the car. The car, resting on rollers, will be propelled in the opposite direction. During a set of experiments, students will vary the mass being tossed from the car and change the number of rubber bands used to toss the mass. Students will measure how far the car rolls in response to the action force generated.

Within the physical science strand of 7th grade science, students focus on the motion of objects. In this task, students will assume the role of school board members who must discuss and vote on the issue of including seatbelts in the district’s school buses. Students will read nonfiction passages regarding this issue to prepare for the board meeting that will take the form of a Socratic Seminar. Students will then individually cast their votes through written explanations of their decisions that reference the discussion and provided passages. The real-world and interdisciplinary aspects of this lesson allow students to build meaningful connections and promote the development of 21st Century Skills. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This resource is an article and interactive question set on balanced and unbalanced forces.

This resource simulates the motion of a horizontally moving rocket sled. Students can modify the propulsion force, the resistance forces and the mass of the rocket sled. The net force and velocity of the sled are displayed.

In this STEM activity, students will compare the aerodynamic features of different nose cone designs. They will experiment with different nose cone shapes to determine the advantages and disadvantages of each type. Conic, parabolic and flat shapes will be tested to determine which is most aerodynamic.

In this STEM challenge, students modify a paper cup so it can zip down a line and drop a marble onto a target.

In this lesson, students construct paper rockets and evaluate their rockets' flight. Following the flight of the rockets, students reconsider their rocket designs, make modifications, and fly the modified rockets to determine if the changes affected rocket performance. Students conclude the activity by writing a post-flight mission report.

This lesson plan is about Newton's laws of motion and how they apply to the concept of variables in relation to launching pop rockets. Learners will apply each of Newton’s laws of motion to the “Pop Rocket Variables” activity. Includes a teacher's guide and students handouts. Video and audio clips are provided. This is lesson 2 of 8 from the Dynamic Design: Launch and Propulsion module.

Sample Learning Goals
Explain the Conservation of Mechanical Energy using kinetic, gravitational potential, and thermal energy.
Describe how changing the mass, friction, or gravity affects the skater's energy.
Predict position or estimate speed from energy bar graph or pie chart.
Calculate speed or height at one position from information about a different position.
Describe what happens to the energy in the system when the reference height changes.
Design a skate park using the concepts of mechanical energy and energy conservation.

In this STEM activity, teams of students will form "rocket companies" and compete in a commercial endeavor to construct a rocket capable of lifting payloads into Earth orbit. Through a strong interdisciplinary approach, balancing science with technology, engineering and mathematics, they will develop a budget, purchase construction materials and track expenditures while designing the rocket. Students will apply principles and design, comstruct, test and launch a water rocket using a real-world problem-solving simulation.

Students compare the viscosity of common household substances by measuring how fast marbles move through the liquids.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 7th Grade Science. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 7th Grade Science. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 7th Grade Science.  

This multimedia resource, part of the NC Science Now series, discusses the forces involved in cycling and describes how an aeronautics engineer uses Newton"™s three Laws of Motion to test the best posture and helmet for a cyclist in the A2 Wind Tunnel. This premier testing facility, in Mooresville, NC, offers state of the art technology in the study of wind resistance by helping cyclists, NASCAR drivers, and Olympic bobsledders ride like the wind. Components of this resource include a video, related text articles, a photo gallery, and an interview with an aeronautical engineer. Links to these components are provided on the page under the heading "UNC-TV Media."

In this video, students learn acceleration is the change in velocity. That means acceleration can mean a change in speed or direction.

In this video, students learn that energy does not change, and that means it is constant. When one object applies force to another, the energy becomes an equal and opposite reaction.

Students learn about the physics behind a ski jump. In an associated activity, students demonstrate the conversion between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy by investigating how to launch a projectile as far as possible.

In this classroom activity, students will discuss and use knowledge of energy to solve a challenge of getting the longest roll time on a foam track.

This lesson looks at kite flying, a popular hobby in Malaysia, as a way to introduce basic ideas related to the dynamics of flight and can be used as an extension of a physics lesson, especially after the students have learned about forces. It will focus on some of the concepts such as weight, thrust, lift and drag.