Educational

This online resource is a good demonstration of the transfer of energy.

The resource give details of a teacher demonstration on the energy transformations involved in a collision between a basketball and a tennis ball.

A tennis ball is positioned on top of a basketball and the two are dropped from a height. The tennis ball is spectacularly propelled high into the air when they collide with the floor.

The resource also gives a detailed explanation of what’s going on and how to take things further.

This online resource investigates Newton’s second law of motion.

The resource is a student practical activity. Students time how long it takes a dynamics trolley to travel a set distance along a runway under a given force.

The force is then doubled and the time re-measured. Mass is then doubled and the time re-measured.

Teaching notes are included and related experiments are also listed.

Australian Curriculum v9 Codes: AC9S10U05 (Year 10)

This downloadable resource is useful for demonstrating velocity and acceleration vectors.

The resource, which can be either displayed in a web browser or downloaded as a standalone Java application, is a simulation that illustrates velocity and acceleration vectors as changing arrows as a ball is moved around a screen.

Linear motion, simple harmonic motion and circular motion are demonstrated. The velocity and acceleration arrows can be shown together, or one or both can be hidden to allow students to predict their directions.

This online resource looks at the transfer of energy.

The resource is a student activity that focuses on the energy conversions between GPE and KE when a ball bounces.

The investigation begins with a teacher demonstration and explanation then moves on to student investigations, dropping different balls from different heights.

Simple but effective.

.Australian Curriculum v9 Codes: AC9S8U05 (Year 8), AC9S9U05 (Year 9)

This online resource looks at the history of the Universe.

The resource is an interactive timeline that covers the history of the Universe and the Earth from the Big Bang to the current day.

Links from this page also give access to activities that help reinforce the concepts involved.

Australian Curriculum v9 Codes: AC9S10U03 (Year 10)

This online resource looks at various sources of energy and how people use them.

The resource provides students with opportunities to explore the concept of energy, including renewable energy sources such as the Sun, wind and water.

Students will conduct investigations to determine factors that affect the output of a simple battery and participate in hands-on activities to consolidate their understanding and to improve the efficiency of a waterwheel.