Physics Introduction Activity: The Tree of Physics

The first day of a Physics class is filled with excitement! But it is also true that it is a stressful day for the teacher. This is because as a Physics teacher, you are expected to be full of fun activities, cool demos and interesting facts and trivias.

Here is an activity which is perfect in introducing Physics to your students: The tree of Physics.

Most Physics book contain a Tree of Science. Explain to your students the relationship pf Physics with other branches of science. After they understand the tree of science, let them make their own tree, but this time it should be a Tree of Physics.

Terminal Velocity Activity: Egg Parachute

A parachute for an egg.

Terminal velocity is a fun topic. It will make your students realize how important Physics is in their lives. Without terminal velocity, raindrops would be very painful.

However, this topic can be overlooked! Even I, just showed a video for this topic when I taught in college. It was a video of people in parachutes.

When I taught in High School, I let my students perform an activity where they have to make a parachute. This parachute should be enough to prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from the second or third floor of a building.

Projectile Motion Animation

A screenshot of the Projectile Motion animation and 

simulation made by the University of Colorado. 

Projectile motion is one of the many fun topics in Physics. With projectile motion, you can let your students play volleyball, throw and drop coins, make parachutes for an egg and many more. You can even let them fire cannons!

Well, yeah, many schools would not allow cannons to be fired by their students. But you can do it with an animation, a simulation of projectiles.

When I first taught Physics for STI College Ormoc, I found the use of this animated simulation of projectiles like cannon balls, cars, baseballs or golf balls relevant to my students' course. They were after all, IT students.