Newton's Notions

Get hands-on with sir Isaac Newton's three laws of motion! Explore concepts like inertia, acceleration, and reaction forces. We've designed an exciting curriculum filled with engaging and memorable physics activities, including making balloons into rockets, measuring friction, and building a simple "hovercraft." 

Our highly engaging kit includes a full-color student curriculum workbook and teacher guide with detailed, step-by-step instructions for seven fun science activities (plus extras!) designed to engage your student in the laws of motion and how they were developed. The student experience has inquiry-based activities and assessments designed to enhance your student's understanding of physics and the world around them. Designed to provide over 16 hours of education and entertainment, both teacher and student will be able to open the box and start within minutes. 

In this kit, the student will engage in these engaging science experiments:

1. Watch what happens to objects in a spinning water-filled tube.
2. Put Newton's First Law of Motion into practice and be able to to explain why some objects just stay still.
3. Make a Newton's Tube, which isn't quite Newton's cradle, but works similarly.
4. Race different balls down ramps to learn how force acts and gravity fits into Newton's Second Law of Motion and what the second law states.
5. Explore a new type of force - friction - through the measurement of the drag on a weighted balloon.
6. Demonstrate Newton's Third Law of Motion by using the power of air to make balloons into simple rockets.
7. Investigate buoyancy and density while making an easy hovercraft toy.
8. Keep the physics fun rolling with a variety of engaging optional extensions!

Use this Newton's Notions lab kit to answer questions such as:

• What is the law of inertia?
• How are force, mass, and acceleration connected (f=ma)?
• How do action and reaction forces work in real life?
• How did Isaac Newton develop the laws of motion?

Newton's Notions includes a variety of science projects that will foster learning and encourage students to want to learn more about topics such as:

• Outside force
• Physical science
• Net force
• Opposite reactions
• Why things move the way they do 

This kit is the perfect way to spark interest and encourage students to think of a physics-focused science fair project exploring moving objects and how they relate to the mass of the object by conducting a motion experiment.

Interested in learning more? Check out our Student Workbook Sample and Teacher Guide Sample!  

Our Newton's Notions kit is a part of the Science Unlocked Launch series and is recommended for middle and high school students in grades 8-12 and will teach them about force of gravity. Prior to completing Newton's Notions, we recommend the prerequisite kit Controlling Collisions!

This kit contains:

• 1 Balloon, Large (Note: The "Getting Started" document indicates that you should receive 3 of these. It is incorrect as only one extra-large balloon comes in the kit.)
• 4 Balloons, Small (Note: The "Getting Started" document indicates that you should receive 3 of these. It is incorrect as you will receive 4 medium balloons in the kit.)
• 1 CD
• 1 Cardstock
• 1 Straw
• 2 Corks
• 1 Dropping Bottle
• 1 Fishing Line
• 1 Masking Tape
• 1 Table Tennis Ball
• 1 Plastic Tube
• 2 Rubber Caps
• 1 Spring Scale
• 5 Steel Balls, small
• 1 Steel Ball, large
• 4 Wooden Dowels

You will also need:

• Scissors
• Stack of Books
• Table or Countertop
• Water

• Learning outcome: Get hands-on with Newton’s three laws of motion, exploring concepts like inertia, acceleration, and reaction forces.
• NGSS science standards alignment
• HS-PS2-1 Analyze data to support the claim that Newton’s second law of motion describes the mathematical relationship among the net force on a macroscopic object, its mass, and its acceleration.
• HS-PS2-2 Use mathematical representations to support the claim that the total momentum of a system of objects is conserved when there is no net force on the system.
• MS-PS2-1 Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.
• MS-PS2-2 Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.