science Grades 6 to 8 Live now

Sports Physics Grades 6 to 8

Sports Physics Grades 6 to 8 is a 12-week forces, motion and energy course for middle schoolers that uses only things a family already has: a soft ball, a tape measure, a timer, masking tape, a cardboard ramp, a rubber band and a fridge magnet. Students set up the Field at home and keep a Field Log. Week by week they measure speed, test balanced and unbalanced forces, see how mass changes motion, time falling objects and read planet gravity from NASA data, compare friction on different surfaces, find out how mass and speed change kinetic energy, store energy with height and stretch, follow energy through a bounce, meet action and reaction with a balloon rocket, explore magnets and static as forces at a distance, and track the arc of a thrown ball. The course ends with a landing pad designed, built, tested and improved at the Field. Short daily lessons with checked answers, a hands-on Field Lab each week and a Saturday Game Day for the family. 100% free, start to finish.

• Measure speed as distance divided by time and describe motion from a chosen frame of reference
• Explain how balanced and unbalanced forces, and an object's mass, change its motion
• Give evidence that gravity pulls objects together and depends on mass, and compare friction and air resistance on different surfaces
• Describe how kinetic energy depends on mass and speed and how energy is stored by height and stretch
• Trace energy transfers through a bounce, a collision and a stop, and show action and reaction in a collision
• Design, test and improve a landing pad using criteria and constraints, and write a report from Field data