Born in England in 1643, Sir Isaac Newton could easily have ended up as a farmer instead of becoming one of the world’s greatest scientific minds. When his mother tried to convince him to become ...
In this simulation, students set rocket parameters before launching to see how high the rocket goes and whether they can launch the payload.
Many people have heard of Sir Isaac Newton. He is famous for developing many scientific theories in mathematics and physics. Newton described how ‘normal’ liquids or fluids behave, and he ...
How does the acceleration of a model rocket compare to the Space Shuttle? By using the resultant force and mass, acceleration can be calculated. Forces acting The two forces acting on rockets at ...
A rocket will launch and keep speeding up as long as the force pushing it upwards (thrust) is greater than the forces pulling and pushing it downwards (gravity and drag). Newton’s first law ...
Your challenge is to make the rocket go as high as possible and launch a payload 400 km above the ground. You can change rocket parameters like mass, thrust and drag before launching to see how ...
This timeline looks at some of the historical aspects of rockets – taking science and technology to new heights. 1232 – Chinese fire arrows The first true rocket is invented by the Chinese. Fire ...
If you poured some water down a slope, it would flow freely and quickly, but what about if you repeated the process with honey? Can you imagine how honey would flow down a slope? Sticky oozy ...
The mass of a rocket is important for two reasons – an object with less mass accelerates more quickly, and an object with more mass has more gravitational force acting on it. To understand these ...
Rockets launched into space can be suborbital (brief visit to space) or orbital (staying in motion around the Earth) or can escape Earth’s gravity to travel deeper into space. What is space? The ...
What is a rocket pushing against to make it start moving? Is it pushing against the ground? The air? The flames? To make any object start moving, something needs to push against something else ...
Rocket science includes ideas of forces and motion, how rockets work and some of the challenges for those wanting to make rockets go faster and higher. Rights: NASA/Bill Ingalls Juno launch This ...
Chemical rocket engines use a fuel (something to burn) and an oxidiser (something to react with the fuel). Together, they are referred to as the propellant. As the propellant reacts inside a ...
Are you looking for ways to teach forces? If you’re new to the Science Learning Hub, you may want to start with our introductory video on teaching physics. Help, I’m teaching physics Discover ...
Liquids are one of the states of matter – the other states are solids, gases, plasmas and Bose-Einstein condensates. The simplest way to determine if something is a liquid is to ask this ...
In this activity, students make a water bottle rocket. They investigate the variables that affect the height and distance travelled by the rocket. By the end of this activity, students should be ...
Liquid is one of the states of matter, and viscosity is a property of liquid. Some liquids display strange behaviour because their viscosity makes them flow differently to ‘normal’ liquids ...
The gravity well is a physics analogy. It aids with the visualisation of abstract physical concepts. Select a label for background information, demonstration videos and links to related content ...
An inquiry approach is a method often used in science education. The question bank provides an initial list of questions about rockets and places where their answers can be found. The article ...
In this activity, students design and build a balloon-powered car to better understand the science ideas related to rocket propulsion. They use ideas of mass and force to work out ways to improve ...
In this recorded professional learning session, Greta Dromgool and Ted Cizadlo will build your confidence to teach about the Physical World. The New Zealand Curriculum achievement objectives for ...
The Science Learning Hub has many resources for primary teachers related to mixtures in the Material World strand of the New Zealand Curriculum. Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga ...
In this activity, students make an effervescent canister rocket using baking soda and vinegar. They develop their understanding of rocket propulsion and investigate the amount of vinegar that ...
Oobleck – a cornflour and water mixture named after a substance in a Dr Seuss book – initially behaves like a liquid or a jelly. However, when you squeeze it in your hand, it behaves like a solid ...
