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Showing results 21 to 40 of 57
Rooftop Gardens
How does a green roof, or roof covered by plants, affect the temperature of the inside and outside of a building? Learners design and build houses to find out the answer.
Thermal Energy Put to Work
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In this activity, learners determine whether thermal energy can be used for work.
Effects of Solar Radiation on Land and Sea
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In this activity, learners explore the different heating properties of soil and water.
Marshmallow Catapult
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In this activity, learners explore physics by building a catapult that launches marshmallows with household objects.
Geothermal Power Plant Model
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In this activity, learners make a model of a power plant that uses steam. Learners use simple materials like foil, a tin can, and a pot of water to model a geothermal power plant.
Stretch Your Potential
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In this activity, learners create a toy that demonstrates the First Law of Thermodynamics or the Law of Conservation of Energy.
Paddle Boat
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In this activity, learners build an old-fashioned paddle boat out of simple materials.
"Baseketball": A Physicist Party Trick
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This trick from Exploratorium physicist Paul Doherty lets you add together the bounces of two balls and send one ball flying.
Wind Turbine
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Learners build a wind turbine and test it to see how much energy is created.
Egg Bungee
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Learners attach an egg to a rubber-band bungee cord and drop the egg.
Raceways
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In this activity, learners build a model roller coaster to help the Mummy entertain the Atom's Family monsters. Learners assemble the roller coaster between two chairs using vinyl ceiling molding.
How can You Demonstrate the Efficiency of Different Light Bulbs?
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In this activity, learners actually feel the difference in energy required to light two different types of light bulbs: incandescent light and LEDs.
Rubber Band Racers
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In this activity, learners explore the design of rubber band powered cars. Learners work in teams of "engineers" to design and build their own rubber band cars out of everyday items.
What is Energy?
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In this exploratory activity, learners experiment, observe and determine how various toys change from one form of energy to another.
Ramp it Up
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In this activity, learners will build ramps and test how the laws of physics apply do different objects. Learners will explore physics and cause and effect through this activity.
Can Energy be Created or Destroyed?
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In this activity, learners explore conservation of energy by experimenting with a solar cell light device.
How does the Atmosphere keep the Earth Warmer?
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In this activity, learners simulate the energy transfer between the earth and space by using the light from a desk lamp desk lamp with an incandescent bulb and a stack of glass plates.
Meltdown
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In this activity, learners heat ice and water of the same temperature to get a hands-on look at phase changes. This is an easy and inexpensive way to introduce states of matter and thermodynamics.
Solar Energy
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In this activity (page 11 of PDF), learners compare the air pressure within a dark and a light bottle both heated by the sun, and discover that solar energy can be collected and stored in many ways
A Simple Escapement Mechanism
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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.