Newton's Laws - In Real Life

Objective: Team up with our media driven society to teach students that Newton's Laws are at work all around us.
Materials: internet access, someplace to write down ideas
How its done:
Have students find an action video (while youtube.com works as a site to find videos, you may want to use a site like schooltube.com to ensure videos are appropriate for school). When students are searching they should be encouraged to search for something that interests them - cheerleading, soccer, football, bungee jumping and not to search for Newton's Laws videos.
It is best to give a time limit for the video search, because such a thing can easily get students off task.
Once the students have chosen a video of an action the challenge is to use it to describe Newton's Laws.
Students must describe the video and how it shows Newton's 3 Laws. The descriptions should show an understanding of the Laws as well as give specific information showing the exact parts of the video that illustrate these principles.
The final product to be turned in should have a link to the video and a written description. Students may want to use different videos for each law or one video that shows all three laws. This lesson can also be modified to use with only one of the laws at a time.
You can also add some collaboration by asking students to find videos on their own and write the description then share their findings with a partner. Together the pair must determine the video and explanation that best illustrates the laws. They can edit the description together and then submit one video and description for each pair of students. Discussion with a partner can help to cement understanding or give students a challenge if their partner has a different opinion.