Labs for Momentum and Collisions

Lesson Plans || Learning Outcomes and Activities || Teacher Notes || Labs

 

We have a collection of ~150 labs in the Laboratory section of the website. Each lab was intended to be used with a lab notebook where students report their data and findings and state their conclusion with supporting evidence and reasoning. The intent was to provide a relatively clear purpose (or question) to students that they would need to address AND to limit the amount of directions. The hope is that the purposes and students' ability to design a procedure would drive the lab activity (in contrast to a detailed set of step-by-step procedures being the driving force of students' activity). As such, each of our labs comes with a Question and Purpose and a short paragraph describing what should be included in students' lab report. On occassion, students are also provided a graphic organizer, data table, or other item to be taped into their notebook. The following pages may be useful for those teachers who wish to adopt or simply trial our Labs with a Purpose approach:

Our Thoughts on the Approach || About Lab Notebooks || Teacher Guides for All Labs

Lab 1 - Marshmallow Shooters

Question:
What variables affect the effectiveness of a Marshmallow Shooter?

Purpose:
To investigate the effect of tube length and marshmallow position upon the effectiveness of a marshmallow launcher.

A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, a Conclusion and a Post-Lab Questions section. The Data section should include some observations of the effect of varying the tube length and the marshmallow position upon the distance that the marshmallow is launched. This information is best provided with a table and pictures showing relative tube length and where the marshmallow was originally positioned. The Conclusion should respond to the question raised in the Purpose. 

Lab 2 - Balloon Toss Lab

Question:
What variables affect the impact force in a collision and in what manner do they affect the force?

Purpose:
To investigate the effect of three variables (mass, collision time, velocity change) upon the impact force in a collision.

A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, a Conclusion and a Post-Lab Questions section. The Data section should include some observations of the effect of varying mass, collision time and velocity change upon the impact force on a balloon. The Conclusion should respond to the question raised in the Purpose. The provided Post-Lab Questions should be completed and taped into your lab notebook.

Lab 3: Explosion Analysis

Question:
How do the post-explosion momenta of two carts which are propelled away from each other by an identical force compare to each other?

Purpose:
To compare the post-explosion momenta of two carts which are propelled away from each other by an identical force.

A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, and a Conclusion/Discussion of Results. The Data section should include a sample sketch of the velocity-time graphs and a table of data, organized in rows and columns in order to describe the results for several trials with carts of varying mass combinations. Both measured and calculated data should be included. At least one example calculation should be provided for each type of calculation. The Conclusion/Discussion should involve a comparison of the post-explosion momenta of the two individual carts. An error analysis should be conducted and percent differences should be calculated for the various data trials.

View: Teacher's Guide
(None available; actual labs will be included in Course Package)

Lab 4 - The Cart and The Brick

Question:
What is the evidence that momentum is conserved in a hit-and-stick collision between a moving cart and a dropped brick? In what manner does the evidence support the law of momentum conservation?

Purpose:
To gather convincing evidence that total system momentum is conserved in a hit-and-stick collision a moving cart and a dropped brick AND to describe how the evidence supports the law of momentum conservation.

A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, and a Conclusion/Discussion of Results. The Data section should include a description (diagrams preferred) of the before- and after-collision momentum of two colliding carts. The Conclusion/Discussion should reference the data in an effort to state some general principles regarding changes in momentum of individual objects and total system momentum. Words and/or sample numbers should be used in the discussion.

View: Teacher's Guide
(None available; actual labs will be included in Course Package)

Also Available ...

Physics teachers may find the following for-sale tools to be useful supplements to our Lesson Plan and Pacing Guide section:

1. Task Tracker Subscription (annual purchase)
   A subscription allows teachers to set up classes, add students, customize online assignments, view student progress/scores, and export student scores. Task Tracker accounts allow your students to begin assignments in class or at school and to finish them at home. View our Seat and Cost Calculator for pricing details.

2. The Solutions Guide
   We publish a free curriculum with >200 ready-to-use Think Sheets for developing physics concepts. The Solutions Guide is a download containing the source documents, PDFs of source documents, and answers/solutions in MS Word and PDF format. An expanded license agreement is included with the purchase. (Cost: $25 download)

3. Teacher Presentation Pack
   This is a large collection of downloadable content packed with nearly 190 Microsoft PowerPoint slide decks, the corresponding Lesson Notes (as PDF and fully-modifiable MS Word format), about 170 animations (in .gif, .png, and .mp4 file formats), a countless number of ready-to-use images (including the original source documents that would allow for easy modification of those images), and a license that allows teachers to modify and use all the content with their classes on password-protected sites (such as course management systems).  (Cost: $40 download)

4. Question Bank
   We distribute a Question Bank that includes more than 9300 questions neatly organized according to topic. The Question Bank is the perfect tool for busy teachers or new teachers. Even if you don't use the website with your classes, the Question Bank will assist you in quickly putting together quizzes, tests and other documents with high-quality questions that target student's conceptions of physics principles. And if you do use The Physics Classroom website, the Question Bank is the perfect complement to the materials found at the website. (Cost: $25 download)