Chris Stoker

Need a fun way to introduce the law of conservation of energy? This lab will have kids understanding that and the transfer of energy in a very visual way--by using energy pie charts. These are the best things I use to teach energy! This worksheet walks kids through the free browser-based simulation Energy Skate Park: Basics on the phet website (which I highly recommend!). You can find the simulation here.

This 31 slide PowerPoint is a great way to bring to life some of the amazing phenomena involving light in our atmosphere. These stunning slides will enhance your student's study of reflection, refraction and the scattering of light in the atmosphere. Students will learn: Why storm clouds are dark?What is the green flash?What causes a double rainbow to form?What causes a mirage?What is a halo around the moon?What are sun dogs?and more!These slides were designed for use by the teacher in front

This worksheet helps students develop a better understanding of how to represent motion visually on paper. Prior to using this my students will have played with motion detectors or at least seen a demo of one. You can use a free simulation that is similar here (although its getting fairly old now). This worksheet helps students formalize those ideas a little more. Also, I have already introduced the idea of a drawing motion maps and they will have done a few warmup/bellringer type problems

This is a ten question quiz over straight line motion. I call it the velocity quiz. Students need to know how to create motion maps as well as position-time graphs. They also need to understand the main difference between speed and velocity. It does include a question that requires them to convert between ms/ and mph, however it is only an estimate. I think it is really important for students learning to work with m/s that they put it back into units with which they are familiar. So, I teac

This activity requires students to measure the "fastness" of Forrest Gump in two different scenes from the movie. They are to measure and calculate whether young Forrest or older Forrest is portrayed in the movie as running faster. Links to the two clips on You Tube are provided. The activity works best in groups during class but alternately can be given as a homework assignment. This lab is a great way to review the idea of speed being a ratio between distance and time without mentioning an