Welcome to our web site! Please, notice that the site is very new and I would say it's under construction:-)
The main reason why we decided to start this Science section is to help other homeschoolers (or school teachers) to prepare for fun and engaging lessons.
Teaching science is my true passion, and there is no greater joy than seeing children's faces light up! They start asking questions, and they want to explore and discover this amazing World that God has created. I feel very fortunate to be able to homeschool our children and share my love for science with other children as well.
Last year we studied mostly physics, and I had many people asking me where we got ideas and materials from. Creating this website will help us to put everything in one place, and hopefully, other people will find it useful.
I would say that these lessons are geared towards 9 to 13 year old children, but they can easily be adapted for older grades.
My goal is to add a new lesson every week. So, by September 2015 we will have a good collection!
Please, come back and visit us again soon!
Lessons will be separated by topic. We are currently working on creating that page.
Here is the first lesson: Newton's Laws of motion.
Sir Issac Newton and his Laws of Motion
This was one of my most favorite lessons last year. We had a blast while exploring the Three Laws of Motion!
A short biography of this incredible man:
- Sir Isaac Newton was born on a Christmas Day in 1642.
- Devoted Christian, he tried to become a farmer, but was the absolutely worst farmer in the World!
- He became a Math professor at the age of 26
- Issac Newton was elected to be a member of Parlament, but the only sentence that he said during his entire time as a member, was, “Please, close that window, it’s drafty in here!”
- Sir Issac Newton had a deep interest in Alchemy, and spent many years looking for a “philosophical stone”, elixir of life, and trying to transform regular metals into noble metals like gold.
The main reason why we decided to start this Science section is to help other homeschoolers (or school teachers) to prepare for fun and engaging lessons.
Teaching science is my true passion, and there is no greater joy than seeing children's faces light up! They start asking questions, and they want to explore and discover this amazing World that God has created. I feel very fortunate to be able to homeschool our children and share my love for science with other children as well.
Last year we studied mostly physics, and I had many people asking me where we got ideas and materials from. Creating this website will help us to put everything in one place, and hopefully, other people will find it useful.
I would say that these lessons are geared towards 9 to 13 year old children, but they can easily be adapted for older grades.
My goal is to add a new lesson every week. So, by September 2015 we will have a good collection!
Please, come back and visit us again soon!
Lessons will be separated by topic. We are currently working on creating that page.
Here is the first lesson: Newton's Laws of motion.
Sir Issac Newton and his Laws of Motion
This was one of my most favorite lessons last year. We had a blast while exploring the Three Laws of Motion!
A short biography of this incredible man:
- Sir Isaac Newton was born on a Christmas Day in 1642.
- Devoted Christian, he tried to become a farmer, but was the absolutely worst farmer in the World!
- He became a Math professor at the age of 26
- Issac Newton was elected to be a member of Parlament, but the only sentence that he said during his entire time as a member, was, “Please, close that window, it’s drafty in here!”
- Sir Issac Newton had a deep interest in Alchemy, and spent many years looking for a “philosophical stone”, elixir of life, and trying to transform regular metals into noble metals like gold.
Newton’s three Laws of Motion
First Law
We started our lesson with discussing the phenomenon of Enertia.
The word “Inertia” comes from the Latin word “iners” which means “lazy”.
Newton’s First Law states that unless external forces are applied to it, an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion.
Have you ever seen a video of someone pulling a tablecloth off a table that has a centerpiece of dishes on it?
When done successfully, the objects on the table stay in place while the tablecloth is pulled out from under them.
This is a demonstration of Newton’s First Law.
Experiment 1. We used the Inertia Apparatus from www.hometrainingtools.com as a convenient way to demonstrate this First law without breaking dishes!
The apparatus is very reasonably priced and well-made. I highly recommend purchasing it.
This is a demonstration of Newton’s First Law.
Experiment 1. We used the Inertia Apparatus from www.hometrainingtools.com as a convenient way to demonstrate this First law without breaking dishes!
The apparatus is very reasonably priced and well-made. I highly recommend purchasing it.
An external force (the spring) is applied to the plastic card, causing it to shoot out from under the ball. The ball remains at rest on top of the post.
Experiment 2. Next, we talked about why we always need to use seatbelts in the car. We used a wooden plank (about 2 feet long and 6 inched wide), resting on the wall, creating a nice slope.
Experiment 2. Next, we talked about why we always need to use seatbelts in the car. We used a wooden plank (about 2 feet long and 6 inched wide), resting on the wall, creating a nice slope.
You can use any toy car or truck for this experiment. It just need to have an open cargo compartment, so you can put your little “passenger” in it.
If the toy car starts moving from the top of the slope, and then suddenly gets stopped by any external force (we just use a small barrier on the floor, so the car could crush into in), then the little passenger will continue moving in the same direction that the car was moving. So it will fly out of the cargo compartment!
If the toy car starts moving from the top of the slope, and then suddenly gets stopped by any external force (we just use a small barrier on the floor, so the car could crush into in), then the little passenger will continue moving in the same direction that the car was moving. So it will fly out of the cargo compartment!
Experiment 3. Another wonderful experiment came from www.stevspangler.com.
We used a regular plastic bottle and a large plastic ring that we set on top of the opening of the bottle. Then we placed a hex nut on top of the ring, directly above the opening of the bottle.
If you quickly pull the plastic rig straight out to the side, the hex nut will fall right into the bottle!
The kids had a great time with it! I ended up buying additional rings, so we could have an inertia competition in our homeschool group!
Experiment 4. Our last experiment was similar to the famous tablecloth trick, but we used a grass Pyrex pitcher filled with water. We placed a long strip of paper underneath it, and set it close to the edge of the table.
If you pull paper slowly, the pitcher moves with it, because of the friction.
But if you pull the paper really fast, the force applied will be greater than the force of friction between the two, and the pitcher will stay at rest!
Experiment 4. Our last experiment was similar to the famous tablecloth trick, but we used a grass Pyrex pitcher filled with water. We placed a long strip of paper underneath it, and set it close to the edge of the table.
If you pull paper slowly, the pitcher moves with it, because of the friction.
But if you pull the paper really fast, the force applied will be greater than the force of friction between the two, and the pitcher will stay at rest!
My wonderful inspiration for this lesson was a book of Julius Summer Miller called “Demonstrations in Physics”. It was published a very long time ago, but if you are lucky you will be able to still find it.
Julius Miller was very animated and passionate scientist who studied under Albert Einstein It’s a true pleasure to watch his presentations, thanks to a few videos available on U tube.
Second Law of Motion
Newton's second law of motion pertains to the behavior of objects for which all existing forces are not balanced. The second law states that the acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables - the net force acting upon the object and the mass of the object. The acceleration of an object depends directly upon the net force acting upon the object, and inversely upon the mass of the object. As the force acting upon an object is increased, the acceleration of the object is increased. As the mass of an object is increased, the acceleration of the object is decreased.
Newton's second law of motion can be formally stated as follows:
The acceleration of an object as produced by a net force is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object.
This verbal statement can be expressed in equation form as follows:
a = Fnet / m
The above equation is often rearranged to a more familiar form as shown below. The net force is equated to the product of the mass times the acceleration.
Fnet = m • a
We demonstrated this Law with two different experiments.
Experiment 1.
We used two balls, which were close in size but had a big weight difference. One was a regular soccer ball (pretty heavy), and the other was a foam exercise ball, found at a craft store (very light).
When we hit each ball with a baseball bat, using the same amount of strength (applied force), acceleration of the heavier ball was noticeably slower than the one of the light ball.
Experiment 2.
We got two identical cars, connected with a long thin rubber band. When we pulled the cars apart, stretched the rubber band, and then released them, the cars moved towards each other with the same acceleration.
But when we added a weight to one of the cars and repeated the experiment, the heavier car moved noticeably slower than the lightweight one.
We got two identical cars, connected with a long thin rubber band. When we pulled the cars apart, stretched the rubber band, and then released them, the cars moved towards each other with the same acceleration.
But when we added a weight to one of the cars and repeated the experiment, the heavier car moved noticeably slower than the lightweight one.
Third Law of Motion
According to Newton, whenever objects A and B interact with each other, they exert forces upon each other. When you sit in your chair, your body exerts a downward force on the chair and the chair exerts an upward force on your body. There are two forces resulting from this interaction - a force on the chair and a force on your body. These two forces are called action and reaction forces and are the subject of Newton's third law of motion. Formally stated, Newton's third law is
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
According to Newton, whenever objects A and B interact with each other, they exert forces upon each other. When you sit in your chair, your body exerts a downward force on the chair and the chair exerts an upward force on your body. There are two forces resulting from this interaction - a force on the chair and a force on your body. These two forces are called action and reaction forces and are the subject of Newton's third law of motion. Formally stated, Newton's third law is
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The statement means that in every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects. The size of the forces on the first object equals the size of the force on the second object. The direction of the force on the first object is opposite to the direction of the force on the second object. Forces always come in pairs - equal and opposite action-reaction force pairs.
I purchased a Newtonian Demonstrator from www.hometrainingtools.com. The apparatus is so much fun to play with! Now, a year later, it still sits on our tabletop and every child (and adult) who comes to visit us wants to play with it!
I feel it was money very well spentJ
To conduct this experiment on a larger scale, I used a meter long ruler with a shallow dip in the middle (so the balls won’t roll off). My ruler came from Miquon Math years ago, and I just put it to good use. But you can easily make a similar one out of a wooden plank.
We placed 10 steel balls in the middle, and experimented with pulling one, then two, then three out and then pushing them towards the remaining balls. The results were astonishing! Try it!
I purchased a Newtonian Demonstrator from www.hometrainingtools.com. The apparatus is so much fun to play with! Now, a year later, it still sits on our tabletop and every child (and adult) who comes to visit us wants to play with it!
I feel it was money very well spentJ
To conduct this experiment on a larger scale, I used a meter long ruler with a shallow dip in the middle (so the balls won’t roll off). My ruler came from Miquon Math years ago, and I just put it to good use. But you can easily make a similar one out of a wooden plank.
We placed 10 steel balls in the middle, and experimented with pulling one, then two, then three out and then pushing them towards the remaining balls. The results were astonishing! Try it!