• Students' skills and concepts addressed by this module:
• Understand gravity as acceleration
• Qualitative understanding of free fall
• Qualitative understanding of projectiles
• Estimated time for this module: 3 days
• Observations:
• Students should be able to understand that gravity accelerates masses towards the Earth. This is fundamental for further understanding of forces and orbital motion.
• Other web pages of interest in this topic:
• http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/SEP/physical.html A repository of web sites and pointers from UC Irvine Science Education Programs Office
• http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/index.html The Exploratorium online snacks
• http://littleshop.physics.colostate.edu/ The Little Shop of Physics
• http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Physics/Education/K_12/ Yahoo directory of K-12 physics resources
• http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/Class/1DKin/U1L5a.html Lesson plans of 1D kinematics
• http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/msl1/ground_lab/msl1freefall.htm Free fall and microgravity (low gravity) from NASA. A bit too advanced...
• http://oldsci.eiu.edu/physics/DDavis/1050/Ch8Grv/ToC.html Good resource on gravity.
• http://www.teacherlink.usu.edu/nasa/activities/microgravity2/activities/activities.html More on NASA microgravity
• http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/olmsa/ISS/gravity.htm More NASA stuff
• http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/ The Galileo Project - The life of Galileo
• http://webphysics.ph.msstate.edu/ip/projectile.html Projectile motion explanation - Good for teachers
• http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/secme/projectile/ A workshop about projectile motion

 

• This material should be presented before the introduction of kinematics or dynamics. Understanding the concepts of speed, velocity and types of motion is the basis from which further understanding of movement (kinematics) and forces (dynamics) will be built, in particular the concepts introduced by Newton's Laws and force. The use of online activities will help reinforce the concepts learned in the classroom and with the hands-on activities.

Classroom activities:

http://www.flash.net/~spartech/ReekoScience/gravity.htm Description of how to perform Galileo's experiment in the classroom. Try to use objects of the same shape. Instead of an orange and a grape, use an orange and a tennis ball which have similar sizes but different weights.
 
 

Online Activities:

http://www.american.edu/IRVINE/bardhyl/Vect3.htm Parabolic motion. Decomposing the 2 dimension of projectiles. Good visual aid.
http://www.explorescience.com/freefall.htm Free fall lab. Great for assessment.
http://jersey.uoregon.edu/vlab/Cannon/index.html Cannon. Measures the relation between velocity, gravitational potential and the effects of frictional drag.
 
 

Suggestion for Assessment:
http://www.physics.unl.edu/CIPP/projectile.html - Questions and pictures
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/9208/efff.html Elephant and feather quiz... With graphics... Ties into Newton's laws
 

Online Activities & Assessment: The Word files in this table contain the answers to the worksheets. Depending on your browser configuration you might have to save this Word document to your disk. The student guide page contains links to online versions of these worksheets for the students.
 

Student Guide: