Tutors should conduct instruction about mass, speed and momentum and their effects on work, kinetic energy and power on the school track or practice field. Assign students a partner and provide stopwatches so they can time each other walking and running a specified distance. Record the times and discuss the formulas for calculating work and power. Compare students of different mass and determine whether more weight accomplishes more work. Discuss the difference in kinetic energy when less or more work is done.
Rather than write a research paper on machines and their inventors or simply looking at pictures of various simple machines, tutors will help students understand the principles of mechanical advantage and efficiency when they build their own. Divide students in groups of four and assign each group a different lever system, ramp, and pulley to construct. Groups can compete against each other to determine which lever accomplishes the greatest work with the least force, which ramp offers the least resistance when an object of great mass moves up or down on it, and which pulley system raises the most weight.
Comparing the conductivity of various metals is a simple project that provides tutorial students an opportunity to play with fire. Each student will need an iron nail, a steel nail, a butane lighter and a small candle. Light the candles and place a drop of wax every centimeter along the length of each nail as the candle melts down. Hold the lighter next to the head of each nail and calculate the amount of time it takes all the wax drops to melt off the nail. Compare the iron and steel melting times to determine what metal is a better thermal conductor.
Tutors may need to do some research to track down a working set of old Christmas lights, but they are a great resource for teaching students about the difference between series and parallel circuits. Locate an old series Christmas light string and make sure it is working before replacing one of the good bulbs with a burnt-out light. Ask students to figure out how to get the string working again, and let them replace bulbs until the string will illuminate. Provide a parallel string of Christmas lights and choose three students to remove bulbs from the set. Discuss the results and encourage students to draw conclusions about the advantages of running electricity through a parallel circuit rather than a series circuit.