LESSON MATERIALS:

• Student Exploration Sheet

  • Word
  • PDF

• Teacher Guide

  • Word
  • PDF

• Vocabulary Sheet

  • Word
  • PDF

• Exploration Sheet Answer Key

  Answer Key for Subscribers Only

• Assessment Questions

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Observe that gravity causes objects to fall toward the center of Earth.
• Observe that when a ball is thrown, its path is bent by gravity toward Earth.
• Notice that when the ball is thrown with a high enough velocity, it will go into orbit around Earth. If it is thrown even harder, it will fly off into space.
• Find the orbital velocity and escape velocity of objects on Earth and other planets.
• Use controlled experiments to discover that gravity becomes stronger as a planet's mass increases and weaker as a planet's radius increases.

VOCABULARY:

• escape velocity, gravity, orbit, orbital velocity, trajectory, velocity