Applying Quadratics: (3) Free Falling Object Labs

Do you love hands-on activities to give your students opportunities to apply what they learn to real-world situations? Do you love the days when your students do something out-of-the-box and class "doesn't feel like a math class!" ? If you are looking at this resource, the answer is probably yes!

Don't shy away if the thought of physics may intimidate you!! This lab includes an answer key and a teacher guide that walks you through these labs - no prior physics knowledge required!

Lab 1: Students explore the graph (parabola), graph transformations, and equation to represent a free-falling object. This lab will be done digitally (is a good virtual day assignment!).

Lab 2: Students will use the quadratic formula to predict when an object will land on the ground if dropped from certain heights. Then they get to test their predictions by timing the falls.

Lab 3: Students will calculate how tall they are based upon how long it takes a ball to land after being dropped from their height.

I suggest doing these labs in order, but the equation needed is given on each lab so they could be done out of order or pick/choose which one(s) to do.