Get tips, resources, and ideas sent to your inbox! ➔

Pendulum Lab

This is a great inquiry lab for your physics unit! In this activity students will be asked to figure out which of the following variables affect the period of the pendulum swing: the mass, the length of the string, or the angle the pendulum is released from.

All you need for this lab is: string, a ring stand (or other object to hang the string from) a stopwatch, a protractor, and some hanging masses. Don’t have hanging masses? You can hang a cup instead and add pennies or marbles for weight (see the images below).

inquiry based pendulum lab

I gave the students 2 days to complete this lab. The first day they just played around with the pendulums and tried to figure out which variable affected the pendulum swing. The second day I had them time the swings, record data, and make conclusions. It was a great introduction to my unit on motion! If you’d like to check out the 2 day lab write-up I made, it is available in my TpT store.

I hope your students enjoy this lab as much as mine did!

Share it:

Email
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter

Hi, I'm Becca!

I help busy science teachers get your prep back by providing you time saving lessons, labs, and resources.

Search the Site

Search

Browse by Category

Get Freebies!

Let me help your students with experimental design! Sign up to receive a free glow stick lab sent to your inbox!