Teachers' Domain is moving soon to its new and improved home — PBS LearningMedia!          Learn More
 
Physics

Properties of Matter

BACK TO:
RESOURCE GRADE LEVEL MEDIA TYPE
Atmospheric Pressure

Atmospheric Pressure

Did you know that air has weight? This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site explores conditions that affect air density and atmospheric pressure.

6-12

Document

Atomic Structure of an Alloy

Atomic Structure of an Alloy

Learn about the atomic structure of bronze, a copper alloy, in this video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements." OER Level

6-12

Video

Birth of a Supernova, Type Ia

Birth of a Supernova, Type Ia

In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, learn about a type of exploding star — a Type Ia supernova — that is so bright that astronomers can measure the distance to the galaxy in which it resides, and even learn which elements make up the star.

6-12

Interactive

Birth of a Supernova, Type II

Birth of a Supernova, Type II

In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, learn about a type of exploding star — a Type II supernova — that is so large it has a mass 10 times greater than the mass of our Sun.

6-12

Interactive

Body Breakdowns

Body Breakdowns

This interactive feature from the NOVA "Surviving Denali" Web site details the variety of ways the body can fail while climbing a high-altitude peak.

6-8

Interactive

Buoyancy Basics

Buoyancy Basics

This illustrated demonstration from the NOVA Web site explains the concepts of buoyancy and density by showing what happens when different kinds of wood blocks are dropped in water.

3-8

Document

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Balloon-in-Car Puzzler

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Balloon-in-Car Puzzler

This interactive brainteaser from the NOVA Web site challenges you to explain the behavior of a helium-filled balloon in a moving car.

3-8

Interactive

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Boat-in-Pool Puzzler

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Boat-in-Pool Puzzler

This interactive brainteaser from the NOVA Web site challenges you to figure out what happens to the water level when a rock is resting in a boat and when it is submerged in water.

3-8

Interactive

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Buoyancy Question

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Buoyancy Question

This interactive brainteaser from the NOVA Web site challenges you to figure out what causes an object to sink.

3-8

Interactive

Carbon-Fiber Car of the Future

Carbon-Fiber Car of the Future

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, find out how cars made of a material stronger than steel and half the weight can help combat climate change. OER Level

6-12

Video

The Dating Game: Radioactive Carbon

The Dating Game: Radioactive Carbon

In this media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site, learn about the atomic structure of radioactive carbon and how it can be used to determine the age of organic remains, such as bones and teeth.

6-12

Document

Developing the Periodic Table

Developing the Periodic Table

This video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements" looks at how early chemists developed the periodic table of elements. OER Level

6-12

Video

Diamonds: The Science Behind the Sparkle

Diamonds: The Science Behind the Sparkle

This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site explains why the atomic structure of a diamond slows down light and produces a sparkle more brilliant than from any other colorless substance.

6-12

Document

Discovering Air

Discovering Air

Our understanding about the air we breathe has changed dramatically through time. This illustrated timeline from the NOVA Web site tracks the changing thought on air and the creation of the Periodic Table of the Elements.

6-12

Document

Einstein: How Smart Was He?

Einstein: How Smart Was He?

This essay from the NOVA Web site explores the impact Einstein made on physics and most everything we know about the cosmos.

6-12

Document

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity

What happens when you approach the speed of light? This video segment adapted from NOVA follows one of Albert Einstein's thought experiments and his quest to find the answer.

9-12

Video

Einstein's Thoughts on the Ether

Einstein's Thoughts on the Ether

Do light waves travel through the ether like waves on a lake travel through water? In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a young Albert Einstein grapples with this question while examining the speed of light. OER Level

6-12

Video

The Elements: Forged in Stars

The Elements: Forged in Stars

The story of how elements from lithium to uranium are created by stars is illustrated through animation and a hands-on periodic table in this video segment adapted from NOVA. OER Level

6-12

Video

Evidence for the Big Bang Theory

Evidence for the Big Bang Theory

This video segment adapted from NOVA tells the story of two scientists who inadvertently discovered microwave radiation that is now believed to be heat left over from the Big Bang.

9-12

Video

Finding Cures Is Hard

Finding Cures Is Hard

This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" explains the difficulty of curing genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis.

9-12

Video

Fireworks! Lifting Charge

Fireworks! Lifting Charge

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn how pyrotechnicians use common compounds to blast fireworks into the sky and give them shape.

6-12

Video

Fireworks! Making Color

Fireworks! Making Color

What gives a fireworks display its brilliant blue, green, and red colors? Learn how pyrotechnicians give fireworks color in this video segment adapted from NOVA.

6-12

Video

Floating and Sinking: Hot Air Balloons

Floating and Sinking: Hot Air Balloons

Why do hot air balloons float? This resource from the NOVA Web site offers a series of interactive activities that illustrates the physics of hot air balloons.

6-12

Interactive

Franklin Chang-Díaz: Rocket Scientist

Franklin Chang-Díaz: Rocket Scientist

This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW profiles Franklin Chang-Díaz, a scientist who is working on plasma-powered rockets and was NASA's first Latin American astronaut. OER Level

6-12

Video

Free-Falling and "Weightlessness"

Free-Falling and "Weightlessness"

Discover the difference between free-falling and weightlessness in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

6-12

Interactive

Frozen Frogs

Frozen Frogs

This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW shows how the common wood frog freezes solid every winter, an adaptation that allows the organism to survive the cold winter. OER Level

6-12

Video

Galileo: His Experiments

Galileo: His Experiments

This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site samples Galileo's experiments with falling objects, projectiles, inclined planes, and pendulums.

6-12

Interactive

Galileo on the Moon

Galileo on the Moon

Watch Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott perform Galileo's falling objects experiment on the Moon in this video segment from NASA. OER Level

3-12

Video

The Grand Canyon: Its Youngest Rocks

The Grand Canyon: Its Youngest Rocks

This video segment adapted from NOVA features the youngest rock formations in the Grand Canyon, lava dams, and how they are subject to the eroding power of water. OER Level

6-12

Video

Gravity and the Expanding Universe

Gravity and the Expanding Universe

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, traces the evolving history of theories about gravity and a force that may oppose it, along with our understanding of the impact of both of these forces on our expanding universe.

6-12

Video

History of the Universe

History of the Universe

This interactive timeline from the NOVA Web site recaps the theoretical origin and formation of the universe, and forecasts its eventual fate.

6-12

Interactive

How Big Is the Universe?

How Big Is the Universe?

In this media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site, astronomer Brent Tully of the University of Hawaiʻi walks you through the latest scientific theories about the size of the universe.

6-12

Document

Ingredients for Life: Carbon

Ingredients for Life: Carbon

This video segment adapted from NOVA illustrates why carbon is at the center of life on Earth. It also asks whether carbon-based life might exist on other planets. OER Level

6-12

Video

Ingredients for Life: Water

Ingredients for Life: Water

This video segment adapted from NOVA goes on a whimsical journey in search of life forms thriving in extreme conditions on Earth and in outer space. Animations show ice on Jupiter's moon, Europa, and signs that water once existed on Mars.

3-12

Video

Island of Stability

Island of Stability

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, follow scientists in their quest to understand how stable elements are made and how to create the elusive element 114. OER Level

9-12

Video

Journey into DNA

Journey into DNA

Travel deep into the human body to see exactly where your DNA resides. From the NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site.

6-12

Interactive

Lava Sampling on Kilauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi

Lava Sampling on Kilauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientist Mike Garcia draws lava samples at the foot of the active Kilauea volcano to see if it is related to its neighboring volcano, Mauna Loa. OER Level

6-12

Video

The Light Stuff

The Light Stuff

This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site asks which items in your home can slow down the speed of light.

6-12

Interactive

A Nanotube Space Elevator

A Nanotube Space Elevator

In this video adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, find out about the discovery of a new building material, the carbon nanotube, whose physical properties could theoretically enable the creation of a 22,000-mile elevator to space. OER Level

6-12

Video

Next-Generation Space Suits

Next-Generation Space Suits

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, MIT engineer Dava Newman is working to replace today's bulky, inflated space suits with a radical, sleek design that may one day allow astronauts to walk easily on Mars. OER Level

9-12

Video

On Fire

On Fire

Learn about the chemical reactions that take place when things burn in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

6-12

Interactive

The Origin of the Elements

The Origin of the Elements

This video segment adapted from NOVA explains the origin of the elements and how scientists use unique element profiles to identify supernova types. OER Level

6-12

Video

Pyrotechnics: It's Elemental

Pyrotechnics: It's Elemental

In this interactive periodic table from the NOVA Web site, find out the role of various elements in making fireworks.

6-12

Interactive

Quarks: Inside the Atom

Quarks: Inside the Atom

This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how the particle accelerator helped physicists find parts of the atom even smaller than protons and neutrons.

6-12

Video

Relativity and the Cosmos

Relativity and the Cosmos

This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site introduces the basic concepts of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and what we know about cosmology as a result.

6-12

Document

Ringed-Carbon Compounds

Ringed-Carbon Compounds

In this interactive activity adapted from NOVA, learn about alkaloids and steroids, both examples of compounds with carbon rings. Short videos with interviews, animations, and photographs are featured. OER Level

9-12

Interactive

Sequence for Yourself

Sequence for Yourself

How do researchers read the tiny As, Gs, Ts, and Cs that comprise DNA? This step-by-step explanation shows you. From NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life."

9-12

Interactive

Smart Bridges

Smart Bridges

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about engineering innovations that could help detect a bridge's structural weaknesses before they become dangerous. OER Level

6-12

Video

Sound Waves Underwater: True or False

Sound Waves Underwater: True or False

This interactive quiz from the NOVA Web site features an array of interesting facts about the nature of sound underwater.

3-12

Interactive

Sources of Radiation

Sources of Radiation

This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site explores sources of radiation, both harmful and beneficial, natural and manmade.

6-12

Interactive

Steam Machine

Steam Machine

Explore NOVA Online's interactive steam engine and discover how this machine can convert heat to mechanical energy.

3-12

Interactive

String Theory: A Sense of Scale

String Theory: A Sense of Scale

This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site puts the infinitesimally small world of string theory into perspective.

6-12

Interactive

String Theory: A Strange New World

String Theory: A Strange New World

This video segment from NOVA chronicles Einstein's quest to unify the forces of electromagnetism and gravity.

6-12

Video

String Theory: A Theory of Everything?

String Theory: A Theory of Everything?

This video segment from NOVA introduces the basic ideas behind string theory and looks at the quest for unification.

9-12

Video

String Theory: A Theory of Everything Essay

String Theory: A Theory of Everything Essay

In this essay from the NOVA Web site, string theorist Brian Greene introduces the basic ideas behind string theory and how it might help us better understand the universe.

9-12

Document

String Theory: Elementary Particles

String Theory: Elementary Particles

This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site looks at the fundamental forces and particles that make up all matter.

6-12

Document

String Theory: Gravity - The Odd Man Out

String Theory: Gravity - The Odd Man Out

This video segment from NOVA describes the discovery in the 1930s of two forces in addition to electromagnetism: the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force.

9-12

Video

String Theory: Science or Philosophy?

String Theory: Science or Philosophy?

This video segment from NOVA discusses the challenge of proving the scientific validity of string theory, in question because strings may be too small to ever be seen or detected, and therefore tested.

9-12

Video

String Theory: Strings to the Rescue

String Theory: Strings to the Rescue

This video segment from NOVA discusses the challenge of unifying the force of gravity and the forces described by quantum mechanics into a single theory of unification.

9-12

Video

String Theory: The Quantum Café

String Theory: The Quantum Café

This video segment from NOVA relates the rise of subatomic physics in the 1920s and the development of the radical theory of quantum mechanics.

9-12

Video

The Structure of Metal

The Structure of Metal

In this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site, animations explain different aspects of the properties of metal.

6-12

Interactive

Surviving Winter

Surviving Winter

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn about the varied physical and behavioral adaptations that animals rely on to help them survive changing environmental conditions, such as the arrival of winter.

5-12

Self-paced Lesson

Tangled Up in Teleportation

Tangled Up in Teleportation

This video excerpt from NOVA’s "The Fabric of the Cosmos: Quantum Leap" illustrates how quantum entanglement could be used to teleport people from one place to another, and discusses what you would need to make teleportation possible. OER Level

9-12

Video

Tour the Electromagnetic Spectrum

Tour the Electromagnetic Spectrum

Take NOVA's interactive tour of the electromagnetic spectrum and find out why your eyes are like antennae for a narrow band of electromagnetic radiation.

6-12

Interactive

What's This Stuff?

What's This Stuff?

Learn about the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of ten mystery materials in this interactive activity adapted from NOVA.

6-12

Interactive

Your Carbon Diet

Your Carbon Diet

Find out how much energy you use and some ways to conserve in this interactive activity from the NOVA/FRONTLINE Web site.

3-12

Interactive

Your Carbon Diet

Your Carbon Diet

In this interactive activity from the NOVA/FRONTLINE Web site, you can click on various items in a typical New England house to find out how much energy each uses and some ways to reduce energy consumption in your home.

6-12

Interactive