Labs for Newton's Laws
Lesson Plans || Learning Outcomes and Activities || Teacher Notes || Labs
We have a collection of ~150 labs in the Laboratory section of the website. Each lab was intended to be used with a lab notebook where students report their data and findings and state their conclusion with supporting evidence and reasoning. The intent was to provide a relatively clear purpose (or question) to students that they would need to address AND to limit the amount of directions. The hope is that the purposes and students' ability to design a procedure would drive the lab activity (in contrast to a detailed set of step-by-step procedures being the driving force of students' activity). As such, each of our labs comes with a Question and Purpose and a short paragraph describing what should be included in students' lab report. On occassion, students are also provided a graphic organizer, data table, or other item to be taped into their notebook. The following pages may be useful for those teachers who wish to adopt or simply trial our Labs with a Purpose approach:
Our Thoughts on the Approach || About Lab Notebooks || Teacher Guides for All Labs
Lab 1: Pass the Water
Question:
Under what conditions is water most likely to spill from a pan when the pan is carried around an oval race track?
Purpose:
To carry a pan of water around an oval race track in an effort to determine the conditions under which the water is most likely to be spilled from the pan.
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section (which includes a diagram of the oval track and identified locations of water spillage), a Conclusion and a Discussion of Results. As usual, the Conclusion should answer the question proposed in the purpose of the lab. The Discussion of Results should include a discussion of the relationship between your findings and Newton's first law of motion.
View: Teacher's Guide
Lab 2: Galileo for a Day
Question:
What effect does minimizing friction have upon the motion of an object after an initial push is applied to it?
Purpose:
To determine the effect of minimizing friction upon the subsequent motion of an object after it is set in motion by an initial push.
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, a Conclusion, a Discussion of Results and Post Lab Questions. The Data section should include a velocity-time graph with several lines or several velocity-time graphs with one line; the graphs should be labeled and communicate the effect of minimizing friction upon the subsequent motion of the object. The Conclusion should respond to the question raised in the Purpose of the lab (as always). The Discussion of Results section should reference the Data section and discuss the supporting evidence for the conclusion; a statement should be made about the expected result under a condition of no friction. The sheet of Post-Lab questions should be answered and posted into your notebook.
View: Teacher's Guide || Post-Lab Questions
Lab 3: Wait. Hmmm. Gee.
Question:
What is the relationship between the mass of an object and the force of gravity which acts upon the object?
Purpose:
To determine the mathematical relationship (i.e., the equation) which relates an object's mass (m) to the force of gravity (Fgrav) which acts upon the mass.
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, a Conclusion, and a Discussion of Results. The Data section should include a table of data and a plot of the data; the results of a linear regression analysis should also be included. Class data should be reported. The Conclusion should respond to the question raised in the Purpose of the lab (as always). The Discussion of Results section should reference the Data section and discuss the supporting evidence for the conclusion. An error analysis should be included.
View: Teacher's Guide
Lab 4: F-m-a
Question:
What effect does varying force and varying mass have upon the acceleration?
Purpose:
To use experimental data to determine the mathematical equation which relates force, mass and acceleration.
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, a Conclusion, and a Discussion of Results. The Data section should include two acceleration-force graphs (one for each mass) with a sketch of the plotted points, the best estimate on the slope of the line, and an indication of the mass of the cart. Class data should be included for the other lab groups. The Conclusion should respond to the question raised in the Purpose of the lab (as always). The Discussion of Results section should reference the Data section and thoroughly discuss the supporting evidence for the conclusion. The effect of mass and the meaning of the slope of the line should be clearly discussed.
View: Teacher's Guide
Lab 5 - Coffee Filter Skydiver
Question:
How does the velocity and acceleration of a falling object change over time when under the dual influence of gravity and air resistance?
Purpose:
To describe how the velocity and acceleration of an object change over time when falling under the dual influence of gravity and air resistance and to explain why such changes are observed.
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, a Conclusion/Discussion of Results. The Data section should include velocity-time and acceleration-time graphs for a falling filter. The Conclusion/Discussion should reference the data to describe how the velocity and acceleration of the falling filter changed over time. An effort should be made to use the theoretical model of NewtonÕs laws of motion to thoroughly explain why such changes occurred.
View: Teacher's Guide
Lab 6 - Friction
Question:
What is the value of the coefficients of static and sliding friction between two surfaces?
Purpose:
To use methods of graphical analysis to determine the coefficients of static and kinetic friction between two surfaces.
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, a Conclusion, and a Discussion of Results. The Data section should include a table of collected data organized in labeled columns. Sketches of the plots of Ffrict versus Fnorm should be included for both the static and the sliding situation and the results of a linear regression analysis should be reported. The Conclusion should respond to the question raised in the Purpose of the lab. The Discussion of Results should explain the logical connection between the graphical information and the coefficient of friction values.
View: Teacher's Guide
Also Available ...
Physics teachers may find the following
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- Task Tracker Subscription (annual purchase)
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- The Solutions Guide
We publish a free curriculum with >200 ready-to-use Think Sheets for developing physics concepts. The Solutions Guide is a download containing the source documents, PDFs of source documents, and answers/solutions in MS Word and PDF format. An expanded license agreement is included with the purchase. (Cost: $25 download)
- Teacher Presentation Pack
This is a large collection of downloadable content packed with nearly 190 Microsoft PowerPoint slide decks, the corresponding Lesson Notes (as PDF and fully-modifiable MS Word format), about 170 animations (in .gif, .png, and .mp4 file formats), a countless number of ready-to-use images (including the original source documents that would allow for easy modification of those images), and a license that allows teachers to modify and use all the content with their classes on password-protected sites (such as course management systems). (Cost: $40 download)
- Question Bank
We distribute a Question Bank that includes more than 9300 questions neatly organized according to topic. The Question Bank is the perfect tool for busy teachers or new teachers. Even if you don't use the website with your classes, the Question Bank will assist you in quickly putting together quizzes, tests and other documents with high-quality questions that target student's conceptions of physics principles. And if you do use The Physics Classroom website, the Question Bank is the perfect complement to the materials found at the website. (Cost: $25 download)