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Earth and Space Science

Experiments for gravity

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Adrian Castillo Adrian Castillo 435 Points

Hello! I was wondering what kind of experiments would be good to try and explore the concept of gravity for elementary students. I've always found the topic interesting but don't really know how to approach it as a science experiment.

Herry James Herry James 40 Points

There are several simple experiments that elementary students can conduct to explore the concept of gravity. Here are a few examples:

The apple experiment: Hang an apple from a string and observe how it hangs straight down. This demonstrates how gravity pulls objects towards the center of the Earth.
The feather and coin experiment: Drop a feather and a coin at the same time from the same height and observe how they fall to the ground. The coin will fall faster because it is denser and therefore heavier than the feather.

Annie Dietz Annie Dietz 725 Points

Hello! My name is Annie Dietz, and I am a preservice teacher at Wartburg College studying to become a high school Biology teacher. I found this fun article with different experiments involving gravity. Most of them involve dropping different items but I think they would be fun to incorporate into your classroom. I hope this helps!  
https://www.science-sparks.com/gravity-experiments-for-kids-galileo/ 

Fatima Guerra Fatima Guerra 770 Points

Hello Adrian, nice to meet you. Regarding your forum question, there are many ways you could implement a fun/educational experiment for students to understand the concept of gravity. For example, The Egg Drop Experiment consists of a balloon with a base in which the egg is placed. Children will be encouraged to protect their egg and see as it falls from a high point. Also the Gravity Experiment, the teacher provides balls of different masses where the student will then drop a ball while using a timer. This is a way to introduce how gravity and mass work hand-in-hand. 

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