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Meteorites: The Relationship of Kinetic Energy to Mass
Submitted by: Rob S.
Recommended Grade Level(s):
Appropriate for: Middle School, Grades 6–8
Time Requirements:
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Activity Time: 40–80 minutes (depending if data is graphed)
Teaching Topics & Concepts:
Students will investigate how the kinetic energy (KE) of a sphere (marble) is related to the mass of the sphere.
Students will utilize measurement skills and inference from quantitative data. Collaboration and graphical representation
will be practiced as well!
National Science Standards Alignment
NGSS Standards: MS-PS3-1: describe relationship of kinetic energy (KE) to the mass of an object.
Materials:
• Flour
• High walled (solid walls) containers to house the flour (i.e. small box, small wash bins, coffee cans, mop buckets, empty
tissue boxes (with top cut off ). Containers may be all different for each group!
• One container per group.
• Marbles or spheres of different masses (3 different marbles will be optimal; 2 marbles as a modification for students).
• 2 metersticks per group.
• Index card per group (to smooth out the flour base after each drop).
• 1 ruler per group.
• Data table and graph paper
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Safety
• Flour may drift onto the floor over repeated trials (although very seldom). Caution should be taken so that
students do not slip. A simple dust pan sweeping will eliminate this unlikely problem.
!
