Physics Projects, Lessons, Activities (Page 7)

The Physics of Bottle Flipping

STEM Activity

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The bottle flipping craze might be dying down, but it isn’t too late to investigate the physics of this internet sensation. Even if you’ve never heard of it, give this project a try – not only can you impress your friends with a fun new trick, you’ll be able to explain the science behind it! Read more

Waves in Slow Motion

STEM Activity

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Have you ever noticed seagulls bobbing up and down on the ocean while surfers paddle forward to catch a wave? Maybe you remember floating on a lake, going up and down as a wave passed by, or the feeling of being swept ashore by a breaking wave. Water waves are fascinating. They come in all sizes, from a tiny ripple to monster waves that are ten meters high. You have seen them, but do you know what drives them, how they move across oceans and seas? In this activity, you will bring the… Read more

Why Soda Fizzes — Boyle's Law Demonstration

STEM Activity

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You have probably cracked open a soda before to see the liquid fizz right up out of the bottle, creating a huge mess. Why does that happen? It has to do with the carbon dioxide gas that is added to the liquid to make it fizzy. Opening the bottle releases the built-up pressure by the gas inside, causing the gas-liquid mixture to rush out the bottle. In this activity, you will demonstrate with the help of air- and water-filled balloons how a gas changes volume depending on its pressure. Read more

2026 Ball Run Challenge for Grades 9-12

Lesson Plan Grade: 9th-12th

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Add a twist to a classic activity with this fun lesson plan. Your students will design and build a ball run for a ping pong ball using nothing but paper and tape. Their goal is to make the slowest ball run possible. How long can they make it take for the ball to go through their ball run? An optional variation is available if you would like to give students an extra challenge. The 2026 Engineering Challenge has ended. You can still do this challenge with students informally. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

High School - Science & Engineering Practices

Balloon Magic with Bernoulli's Principle

STEM Activity

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Have you ever seen pictures or videos of a roof being blown off a house during a hurricane or tornado? You might be surprised to hear that the roof is actually not pushed off by the strong winds but instead by the air inside the house! This can be explained by Bernoulli's principle, which states that fast-moving fluids or air, such as strong winds, have lower pressure than slow-moving air. In this activity you will demonstrate how balloons can be moved in a similar way. It is not quite as… Read more

Forensics: How Does It Matter? Measure the Spatter!

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Every criminal leaves behind evidence at the crime scene. The trick to catching the criminal is collecting all of the evidence and making sense of it. This is what the forensic expert does. In this science project you will be correlating the size of blood stains to the distance they fell, but do not get too grossed out. You will be doing it with fake blood. If you like figuring out mysteries, this is the science project for you! Read more

How Fish Sink and Float

STEM Activity

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Have you ever thought about why most fish never sink to the bottom of the ocean or float to the water's surface? How is it that they can stay so perfectly buoyant under water? You might be surprised to hear that most bony fish have a special organ to help them with that: a swim bladder. The swim bladder is a thin-walled sac located inside the body of the fish that is usually filled with gas. Besides helping the fish stay buoyant, it can also function as a sound producer and receptor or as an… Read more

Making A Candy Waterfall: Can Solids Flow Like Liquids?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

What do sand, Skittles, and cereal have in common? They are all granular materials, which means they are made up of solid particles, but they can actually flow like liquid! Imagine pouring the sand out of a bucket or pouring the cereal out of a box— a lot like pouring water, right? In this physics science project, you will investigate how the size of granular materials affect how they flow. Read more

Measure Static Electricity With An Electroscope!

STEM Activity

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Have you ever been zapped by a door knob or another person? It feels like a little electric shock and usually happens on cold and dry winter days. Where is this shock coming from? Why is it that sometimes you get zapped and sometimes you don't? It all has to do with static electricity, which can build up in some materials and then be transferred from one object to another. Sometimes you can even see a spark fly between them! In this science activity you will explore how well materials around… Read more

Try the Mythbusters' "Phone Book Friction" Experiment at Home

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever heard that two phone books with the pages interleaved are impossible to pull apart? This might seem crazy, right? It is not that hard to slide a sheet of paper off the top of a stack of paper. How much friction can there really be between sheets of paper? In this experiment, you will use pads of sticky notes instead of phone books. How much weight can they support when you interleave the pages? Do you think you will be able to pull them apart by hand? The results might surprise… Read more

Physics Projects, Lessons, Activities (289 results)

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