all picks
Detailed practical instructions and other notes that explain how to draw out ideas about muscles and levers.
Information about moments and calculations with printable worksheets
A 15 min video of tips on delivering forces concepts in an interesting manner. A thought provoking introduction to moments at the beginning. Requires registration to download
A five minute video that demonstrates a lesson idea for using Cartesian divers to demonstrate pressure and density
A lesson plan from the Science Museum that shows how to use marshmallows to demonstrate changes in pressure
How to make the world's simplest Cartesian diver.
A 'Bang goes the theory' activity with lesson plan, suggested activities and video clips. Aimed at 11-14 year olds, though some aspects can be used with 9-11 year olds.
A pack of lesson plans that can be downloaded, together with video clips from the BBC children's science show that are linked to each lesson. The pack has worksheets and suggested activities for KS3 and 4.
Fun game balancing objects on a mobile.
Printable crossword on pressure and moments (no solution supplied). Assumes force & pressure done first.
Animated guide to simple machines and how they make work easier. Note; the units are in imperial.
A fun game using mechanical components to complete activities.
Getting a Heath Robinson type machine to work. Requires flash 6.0 or higher.
Calculate the weight of a car by using air pressure. This activity is not in metric.
An interactive moments experiment. Students should see the similarities between this and levers they use in daily life. Use the resource to explore how to best lift a heavy load with the least effort.
A resource linking force to transport and vehicles
A site that revises pressure.
A site that revises moments.
An excellent animation that enables you to practice the law of moments then test yourself with a game.
An animation that shows the difference in stability of objects of different centres of mass.
Can you lift a 200kg hippopotamus, or generate enough electricity to illuminate a light bulb with the power of wind? These five Eureka! Games are based on real exhibits at TELUS World of Science. Click the arrow to get to the laser game
A series of pages about hydraulics and how they are used in machines, includes videos.
Animated diagram of a simplified master cylinder with two slaves included in an explanation of how brakes work.
An example of pressure in the real world. Could get pupils to draw the diagram and write a simplified explanation of how it works for homework. Quite complex.
An explanation of levers, including the three classes of levers.
A School Physics site with information about energy resources, forces and motion, how animals would fare in the Olympics and much more.
Read through the site to learn about how brakes work
Lesson plan for using a lever and designing a catapult.
This applet shows a symmetrical lever with some interactive mass pieces to balance, can be used to show The Principle of Moments.
Worksheet PDF printable. Slight variation of the meter rule see-saw balancing experiment. Can be used with part 2 see details separately.
Worksheet PDF printable.You may wish to use this results recording page for some pupils with the experiment detailed in part 1.