all picks
An outline of a fun activity. Pupils design and launch a water powered plastic soft drinks bottle with an egg attached. there are points for length of time in the air and survival of the egg. You could use the
2 videos that can be analysed frame by frame to study how falling is independent of mass.
A thought provoking exercise about gravity. Useful as a starter to a lesson.
Information page on the difference between mass and weight. Nice exercise to calculate pupils' weight on different planets. Reference to 'other worlds' could lead to misconceptions.
A wealth of information and some great interactive simulations about gravity.
Three short videos on gravity. Quicktime required.
Two simple activities to help in the understanding of gravity.
An interactive experiment simulating Galileo's Pisa Experiment. Click on the picture to get started.
Complete a number of tasks by controlling the thrust and angle of a rocket launch.
An interactive activity that explains how playing sports on the Moon would be different.
A page explaining the difference between mass and weight.
Pupils need to select the size and direction of the force to get them back to base. They must take into account the effects of gravity and avoid being blasted.
A website devoted to the life and work of Galileo, and his contributions to the development of scientific thought particularly the heliocentric model of the Solar System. Very interesting, but not very accessible for KS3 pupils.
Relatively simple explanation of how GPS receivers work, from the excellent Howstuffworks site. Much too complex for most KS3 pupils, but teachers will find it useful background.
NASA site for kids and the public about living in space, including videos and simulations. Some material is quite complicated. Kids may well be most interested in the space toilet...
An introduction to the ideas of Aristotle on motion and how Galileo's ideas laid the foundation for their overthrow.
An fun animation about falling objects set in Pisa. Would be good for extension work as some of the explanations are at quite a high level e.g. Equations.
Video archive from BBC News Online, showing Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin on the moon, with other archive info
Interesting and accessibly written site from the US public TV programme NOVA about the origin of the moon, giving the main theories considered.
An animation to show a ball falling under gravity on the Earth and the Moon