Eighth Grade, Physics Projects, Lessons, Activities (Page 7)

A Really Long Straw

STEM Activity

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16 reviews

Have you ever used a crazy straw? Some spiral their way up. Others have fancy colors or decorations. Some are thin and others are wide. But just about all of them leave you sipping your drink from about the same distance. Why? Wouldn't it be fun to poke your head out of an upstairs window and secretly take a sip from a drink way below? Would it even be possible? With this activity, you'll see if you can set your own record for the longest working straw! Read more

Balls Bouncing Off of Surfaces

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

For example, think of hitting a baseball, heading a soccer ball into the net, or hitting a tennis ball with a racquet. Where the ball goes depends on...what? You can set up a simple model to start your investigation. You'll need a marble, a flat piece of wood, a flat piece of cardboard, a pencil, a ruler, a protractor, and a level surface. Lay down the cardboard down on a level surface and set up the flat piece of wood at one edge. The wood will act like a wall, and you're going to roll… Read more

Build a Disk Siren

STEM Activity

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If you live in an urban area, you probably hear them almost every day: sirens. Police cars, ambulances, fire trucks—they all can come blaring. Their wailing sounds are piercingly loud to help alert others to clear the road in front of them. But have you ever thought about how this loud noise is generated? Make your own disk siren in this activity and find out for yourself. Read more

Create a Sea Breeze

STEM Activity

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A hot summer day is the perfect time to go to the beach and cool down in the brisk ocean water. But it's not only the water that has a cooling effect at the beach. Have you ever noticed that there always seems to be a cool breeze blowing from the ocean to the shore? Where does the wind come from? In this activity, you will build a model of the ocean and the beach to find out—so next time you go to the beach, you will know why the sea breeze is blowing! Read more

Distance and Constant Acceleration

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever dropped something and wondered how fast it was moving while falling? If it was something fragile, like a cell phone, you might not have been thinking about this at the time — you may have been too busy trying to grab the phone! But you probably wanted to find out just how hard it hit the ground afterwards. We know that gravity forces an object to fall, but how does this affect how quickly something falls and how hard it hits the ground? For example, did the phone move faster… Read more

Distorted Images in Curved Mirrors

STEM Activity

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Have you ever visited a house of mirrors and seen a wacky-looking version of yourself? In this activity you can construct your own miniature house of mirrors. Try it out and see what funny reflections you can make! Read more

Extreme Sounds: Lessons in a Noisy World

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Can you hear me now . . . ? Just how loud does a sound have to be for us to hear it? And how loud is too loud for our ears? Learn to measure levels of sound in this project, and discover the amazing auditory range your ears can detect in the noisy world around you. If you have a smartphone handy, you can even do this project without purchasing any additional materials, by using your phone's sound sensor and a sensor app. Read more

Go With the Flow

STEM Activity

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Do you ever wonder why we perform tasks in a particular way? Very often, we learn by copying someone and never stop to question if there is a more efficient or easier way to do something. This activity is about the tricky task of pouring from a full container. Could there be an easier way to do it? Read more

Mixing Mystery: Why Does Tumbling Sometimes Separate Mixtures?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

What do sand and cereal have in common? They are both granular materials, which means they are made up of solid particles, but they can actually flow like liquid. When two granular materials with very different-sized particles are mixed, you can actually separate each type by putting them in a rotating device called a tumbler. In this science project, you will examine how common household granular materials behave when mixed together in a moving container Read more

Rubber Band Car Challenge for Grades 6-8

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

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In this fun engineering lesson plan, your students will build rubber band-powered cars using readily available craft supplies. The challenge is to build a car that goes as far as possible while making careful use of materials. Elementary school and high school versions of this lesson plan are also available. This lesson was part of the 2024 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-ETS1-2. Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

Eighth Grade, Physics Projects, Lessons, Activities (116 results)

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