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Gravity in Action
Source Institutions
Explore the effects of gravity on a slowly falling object: a parachute you make out of plastic bags, string and stones.

Watch It Fly
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Learners observe projectile motion by launching wooden balls off of a table top. They set up a rubber-band launcher so that each ball experiences a consistent amount of force.

Tops
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In this activity, learners discover that some things only stand up while they are spinning.

Catapult
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Build a catapult that transforms the potential energy of a twisted rubber band into kinetic energy. Experiment with design variations so that you can hit a target with a projectile.

Get a Leg Up
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In this activity, learners experiment and collect data during a simulation of the fluid shifts experienced by astronauts' bodies in microgravity.

Bobbing Eyeballs
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In this activity, learners use simple materials and basic tools to construct a special toy to explore pendulums. As the head of the toy bobs one way, the eyeballs bob the other way.

Magnetic Pendulum
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In this activity about magnetism (page 15 of the PDF), learners will explore how opposite and similar magnetic poles affect a swinging (pendulum) magnet.

Swinging Yo-Yo
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Learners build a pendulum from a yo-yo, and then design their own experiment to determine what affects the pendulum's period of swing.

Chain Reaction II
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In this hands-on activity, learners use an assortment of (mainly household) items to complete Rube Goldberg-type challenges.

Clay Bridges
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In this activity, learners make bridges using an oil-based modeling clay (plasticene). The instructions include discussion questions for both before and after bridge building.

Falling Rhythm
Source Institutions
Listen to the beat of gravity. By taking two strings with weights tied to them at different, yet uniform intervals, you can hear the uniformity (and rhythm) of gravity's accelerating pull.

Black Holes: No Escape
Source Institutions
This fun and simple hands-on astronomy activity lets learners experiment with marbles and weights to discover some basics about gravity and black holes.

How Do Probes Get To Space?
Source Institutions
Investigate how force and thrust work to propel rockets into outer space. Build a rocket: a blown-up balloon taped to a drinking straw threaded through some string.

Convection Demonstration
Source Institutions
In this quick activity (located on page 2 of the PDF under GPS: Balloon Fiesta Activity), learners will see the effects of convection and understand what makes hot air balloons rise.

Filtration Investigation
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners explore how engineering has developed various means to remove impurities from water.

Swing in Time
Learners build and investigate pendulums of different lengths. They discover that the longer the string of the pendulum, the longer the time it takes to swing.

How Do Things Fall?
Learners engage in close observation of falling objects. They determine it is the amount of air resistance, not the weight of an object, which determines how quickly an object falls.

Zip Line Zoo
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In this activity, learners build a stuffed-animal zip line. Learners hold a cord against a wall, hook a cute stuffed animal onto it, let the animal slide down, and records its travel time.

Solve The Fall
Source Institutions
In this twist on a classic design challenge, learners will try to stop a bouncy ball from bouncing as they explore how to control the fall of an object.

Balloon Rockets
Source Institutions
This is an activity about rockets. Learners will explore how rockets leave Earth's orbit and what it takes to make a launch successful.