Through four lessons and four hands-on associated activities, this unit provides a way to teach the overarching concept of energy as it relates to both kinetic and potential energy. Within these topics, students are exposed to gravitational potential, spring potential, the Carnot engine, temperature scales and simple magnets. During the module, students apply these scientific concepts to solve the following engineering challenge: "The rising price of gasoline has many effects on the US economy and the environment. You have been contracted by an engineering firm to help design a physical energy storage system for a new hybrid vehicle for Nissan. How would you go about solving this problem? What information would you consider to be important to know? You will create a small prototype of your design idea and make a sales pitch to Nissan at the end of the unit." This module is built around the Legacy Cycle, a format that incorporates findings from educational research on how people best learn. This module is written for a first-year algebra-based physics class, though it could easily be modified for conceptual physics.

Figuring out the acceleration of ice down a plane made of ice. Created by Sal Khan.

Identifying forces or force components acting as the centripetal force for a ball on a string moving in a horizontal circle.

Identifying forces or force components acting as the centripetal force for a car driving in a horizontal circle, a car driving in a vertical circle, and a satellite in orbit.

A worked example finding all force vectors acting on a pendulum moving in a horizontal circle.

Determining how fast something will be traveling upon impact when it is released from a given height. Created by Sal Khan.

Figuring out the components of the force due to gravity that are parallel and perpendicular to the surface of an inclined plane. Created by Sal Khan.

Students use a simple set up consisting of a coil of wire and a magnet to visualize induced EMF. First, students move a coil of wire near a magnet and observe the voltage that results. They then experiment with moving the wire, magnet, and a second, current carrying coil. Students connect the coil to a circuit and the current from the induced EMF charges a conductor.

Sal determines the current and EMF induced in a wire pulled through a magnetic field. Created by Sal Khan.

Student teams design, build and test small-sized gliders to maximize flight distance and an aerodynamic ratio, applying their knowledge of fluid dynamics to its role in flight. Students experience the entire engineering design process, from brainstorming to CAD (or by hand) drafting, including researching (physics of aerodynamics and glider components that take advantage of that science), creating materials lists, constructing, testing and evaluating—all within constraints (works with a launcher, budget limitation, maximizing flight distance to mass ratio), and concluding with a summary final report. Numerous handouts and rubrics are provided.

Instantaneous speed and velocity looks at really small displacements over really small periods of time. Created by David SantoPietro.

After watching a 1940 film clip of the "Galloping Gertie" bridge collapse and a teacher demo with a simple pendulum, student groups discuss and then research the idea of motion that repeats itself specifically the concepts of periodic and harmonic motion. They become aware of where and how these types of motion occur and affect them in everyday applications, both natural (seasons, tides, waves) and engineered (swings, clocks, mechanical systems). They learn the basic properties of this type of motion (period, amplitude, frequency) and how the rearrangement of the simple pendulum equation can be used to solve for gravitational acceleration, pendulum length and gravity. At lesson end, students are ready to conduct the associated activity during which they conduct experiments that utilize swinging Android® devices as pendulums.

Microcontrollers are the brains of the electronic world, but in order to play with one, you must first get it connected! For this maker challenge, students learn how to connect their Arduino microcontroller circuit boards to computers. First, students are walked through the connection process, helped to troubleshoot common pitfalls, and write their first Arduino programs (setup and loop functions, semicolons, camel case, pin 13 LED). Then they are given the open-ended challenge to create their own blinking LED code—such as writing Morse code messages and mimicking the rhythm of a heartbeat. This practice helps students become comfortable with the fundamental commands before progressing to more difficult programs.

Introduction to centripetal force, which accelerates an object toward the center of the circular path.

Ohm’s Law is V = IR, where V = voltage, I = current, and R = resistance. Ohm’s Law allows you to determine characteristics of a circuit, such as how much current is flowing through it, if you know the voltage of the battery in the circuit and how much resistance is in the circuit. Created by Sal Khan.

Basics of gravity and the Law of Universal Gravitation. Created by Sal Khan.

Momentum (P) is equal to mass (M) times velocity (v). But there are other ways to think about momentum! Force (F) is equal to the change in momentum (ΔP) over the change in time (Δt). And the change in momentum (ΔP) is also equal to the impulse (J). Impulse has the same units as momentum (kg*m/s or N*s). Created by Sal Khan.

An overview of what physics is about as we delve deeper in future videos. How physics is related to math, the other sciences, and the world around us.