Skip to Content Go to sign in Skip to Primary Navigation Skip to Secondary Navigation Skip to Page Navigation Skip to Header Navigation Skip to Footer Navigation Read more about accessability options and our navigation

Physics Classroom is making strides to make our site accessible to everyone. Our site contains 6 navigation areas. The Primary, Secondary, and Page Level navigations have a screen reader version of their nav structure that allows using the left and right keys to navigate sibling navigation items, and up or down keys to navigate parent or child navigation items. The others can be navigated using tabs. The Primary Navigation handles the first 2 levels of site pages. The Secondary (which is not always available) handles the 3rd and 4th level of structure. The Page level navigation allows you to navigate the current page's headings quickly. The Header Navigation contains the Light/Dark Mode toggle, Search, Notifications and account login. The Breadcrumb Navigation contains the breadcrumb of the current page. If the current page has a breadcrumb, you can get to it by skipping to the content and tabbing in reverse (shift plus tab). The Footer Navigation contains links such as Privacy, Contact, about and terms. Some resources contain an Audio Player that can be activated by holding down the T key for 3 seconds, and then using K to pause and resume. While not every area of Physics Classroom is usable purely from keyboard and screen reader, we are committed to continue work on making this possible. If you have questions or need additional help, please use this link to contact us.

Return to screen reader navigation
Home Science Reasonings Static Electricity Sticky Tape Experiments About

About the Science Reasoning Center

About Sticky Tape Experiments


Highly Recommended

Like all our Science Reasoning Center activities, the completion of the Sticky Tape Experiments activity requires that a student use provided information about a phenomenon, experiment, or data presentation to answer questions. This information is accessible by tapping on the small thumbnails found on the bottom right of every question. However, it may be considerably easier to have a printed copy of this information or to display the information in a separate browser window. You can access this information from this page. 






The Standards

The Sticky Tape Experiments activity describes a student experiment conducted with two pieces of sticky tape. The interaction of the tape with one another and with a variety of other objects is described. Questions target a student's ability to identify the supporting evidence for a particular conclusion, to draw conclusions that are consistent with two or more data presentations, to make predictions based upon a model, to predict the results of an additional trial, and to understand the design of an experiment.




Success with the activity requires some degree of proficiency with respect to  ...

  • Asking Questions and Defining Problems (Science and Engineering Practice 1.1)
    Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.
  • Developing and Using Models (Science and Engineering Practice 2.3)
    Develop, revise, and/or use a model based on evidence to illustrate and/or predict the relationships between systems or between components of a system.
  • Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions (Science and Engineering Practice 6.3)
    Apply scientific ideas, principles, and/or evidence to provide an explanation of phenomena and solve design problems, taking into account possible unanticipated effects.



While the Sticky Tape Experiments activity addresses the three NextGen Science and Engineering Practices above, the activity drew its greatest inspiration from ACT's College Readiness Standards for Science Reasoning. The activity consists of 56 questions organized into 14 Question Groups that are spread across the three activities. Two strands (Science Investigation - SIN; and Evaluation of Models, Inferences, and Experimental Results - EMI) of the College Readiness Standards are addressed in this activity. The code given for the standard includes three letters to indicate the strand and three numbers to indicate the specific standard within that strand. Higher numbers are indicative of more complex science reasoning skills. The relationship between the questions and the standards is as follows:



Complementary and Similar Resources

The following resources at The Physics Classroom website complement the Sticky Tape Experiments Science Reasoning Activity. Teachers may find them useful for supporting students and/or as components of lesson plans and unit plans.


Physics Classroom Tutorial, Static Electricity Chapter: Charge Interactions


Physics Video Tutorial, Static Electricity: Charge Interactions


Physics Interactives, Static Electricity: Charging Simulation


Concept Builders, Static Electricity: Getting the Hang of Charge


Concept Builders, Static Electricity: Charge Interactions


Minds On Physics, Static Electricity Module, Mission SE2: Interactions Between Charged Objects



Also see:

Stickey Tape Experiments Activity || Teacher Preview Pages (Task Tracker Teachers Only)

About the Science Reasoning Center || SRC and Task Tracker

Also see:

Sticky Tape Experiments Activity
About The Science Reasoning Center SRC and Task Tracker