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Middle School, Physics Lesson Plans (33 results)

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2022 Paper Ball Run Challenge for Grades 6-8
Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th
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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? The 2022 competition is over, but you can see what students built and learn about the winners on the 2022 Engineering Challenge summary page. Teachers, note that elementary and high school … 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.
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.
Wind Maze
Lesson Plan Grade: 4th-12th
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Students will explore the elements by designing a wind maze, a device that can direct the wind along a specific path. Learning Objectives Students will: Design and test a wind maze. Consider how to direct the wind down an intended path by creating bends in the maze. Use observations from their tests to compare solutions and iterate on their designs. NGSS Alignment This lesson helps students prepare for these Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations: … Read more
Black in the Spotlight
Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th
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How does light interact with matter? In this fun hands-on lesson, your students explore how different materials transmit, absorb and/or reflect light. They create their own experiments to demonstrate these phenomena and use a phones' built-in light sensor and a sensor app to add quantitative data to their arguments. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • MS-PS4-2. Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.
Classroom Noise Meter
Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th
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Do you feel like it is always too loud in your classroom? In this lesson you can find out exactly how loud it is. Using a mobile phone and a sensor app, your students will measure and graph the sound levels in your classroom for different working scenarios. How loud are your students when doing independent work, having a group discussion, or listening to their teacher? Based on your students' data, you will determine as a class which sound levels are ideal for each scenario and create a… Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • MS-PS4-1. Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude of a wave is related to the energy in a wave.
Ping Pong Catapult
Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th
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Learn about potential and kinetic energy the fun way—by launching ping pong balls across the classroom with a catapult! Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • MS-PS3-5. Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.
Push Harder — Newton's Second Law
Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th
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Don't just teach your students about Newton's laws of motion using diagrams in a textbook—try something hands-on! In this project, students will build their own cars using craft materials and explore the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration. Students can graph data and make observations in real-time using a mobile phone and a sensor app or use a low-tech approach with a meter stick and stopwatch. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • MS-PS2-2. Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
Rocket Catcher Challenge for Grades 6-8
Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th
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7 reviews
In this fun engineering lesson plan, your students will build a rocket-catching device to help a falling rocket land vertically without crashing, using simple and readily-available materials. Elementary and high school versions of this lesson plan are also available. This lesson was part of the 2025 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.
Solar Sails: The Future of Space Travel
Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th
Working as if they were engineers, students design and construct model solar sails made of aluminum foil to move cardboard tube satellites through "space" on a string. Working in teams, they follow the engineering design thinking steps—ask, research, imagine, plan, create, test, improve—to design and test small-scale solar sails for satellites and space probes. During the process, learn about Newton's laws of motion and the transfer of energy from wave energy to… Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • MS-ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
  • MS-PS2-2. Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object's motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
  • MS-PS2-1.. Apply Newton's Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.
Swinging Pendulum
Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th
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This activity demonstrates how potential energy (PE) can be converted to kinetic energy (KE) and back again. Given a pendulum height, students calculate and predict how fast the pendulum will swing by understanding conservation of energy and using the equations for PE and KE. The equations are justified as students experimentally measure the speed of the pendulum and compare theory with reality.Engineering Connection Mechanical engineers design a wide range of consumer and… Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • MS-PS3-5. Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.
  • MS-PS3-2. Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.
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