Search Results

In this activity, learners create a simple “top” from a CD, marble and bottle cap, and use it as a spinning platform for a variety of illusion-generating patterns.

If a sailboat is stranded because there is no wind, is it possible to set up a fan on deck and blow wind into the sail to make the boat move?

In this activity, a spinning bicycle wheel resists efforts to tilt it and point the axle in a new direction.

Did you know that a Slinky makes a handy model of earthquake waves?

In this activity, learners construct their own small catapults using simple materials. Learners follow visual instructions to build their launching device.

In this activity, learners investigate the speed of chemical reactions with light sticks. Learners discover that reactions can be sped up or slowed down due to temperature changes.

In this physics activity, learners construct a small-scale version of a classic carnival game.

In this activity, learners model directed evolution by making paper fly. Learners construct and fly paper airplanes.

In this physics activity, learners assemble and/or investigate a pendulum "snake." Several large steel hex-nuts are suspended on strings of successively increasing length to form a series of pendulums

In this activity, learners will use a compact disc to build an air puck that can glide across a smooth tabletop. The puck glides with almost no friction on a cushion of air escaping from a balloon.

In this activity, learners make a black box device that serves as an excellent analogy to Rutherford's famous experiment in which he deduced the existence of the atomic nucleus.

In this activity, learners explore electronics and motion by making a Scribbling Machine, a motorized contraption that moves in unusual ways and leaves a mark to trace its path.

In this activity, learners create a tiny electric, motorized dancer. Learners use the interactions of magnetism and electric current to make a wire spin, while displaying the Lorentz Force in action.

In this activity, learners build a recording timer made from simple materials (e.g., small dc motor, sharpie pen, craft sticks, adding machine paper tape, etc.).

In this demonstration/activity, learners observe as a regular size marshmallow is blown through a tube made from a manila file folder.

In this demonstration, learners investigate mass, gravity, and acceleration by dropping a wooden bar with a balloon attached to its underside, a mass suspended from it by rubber bands, and a sharp-poi

In this activity, learners build a Wilberforce Pendulum, a special coupled pendulum in which energy is transferred between two modes of vibration, longitudinal ("bounce') and torsional ("twist"), on a

Cardboard Automata are a playful way to explore simple machine elements while creating a mechanical sculpture.