What Goes Up Must Come Down!

What Goes Up Must Come Down! is a controlled investigation that asks the question, "What will happen if objects with different masses are dropped at the same time?" Students hypothesize about the nature of falling objects, design an experimental test to answer the question using everyday objects, analyze data to form conclusions, and infer that mass does not affect the speed of falling objects. This activity culminates with the teacher demonstration (dropping a bowling ball and a golfball) to show that mass does not affect the speed of falling objects.

How surely gravity's law, strong as an ocean current, takes hold of even the smallest thing and pulls it toward the heart of the world.
Each thing--each stone, blossom, child--is held in place.
Only we, in our arrogance, push out beyond what we each belong to for some empty freedom.
If we surrendered to earth's intelligence we would rise up rooted, like trees.
Instead we entangle ourselves in knots of our own making and struggle, lonely and confused.
So, like children, we begin again to learn from the things, because they have never left God's heart.
This is what the things can teach us: to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that before it can fly.

~ Rainer Marie Rilke