Galileo and the Pendulum (Smartboard)

Galileo and the Pendulum is a 3-day Smartboard presentation that trains students to use the scientific method as they explore the story of Galileo's early pendulum experiments. The presentation leads students to construct their own experiments to show how swing size, mass, and string length affect the period of a pendulum. The presentation also helps students learn to create formal reports based on their experiments. The conclusion of the presentation summarizes their findings, reinforces the scientific method, and then leaves students with an open-ended challenge question for further study.