A simple experiment on the determination of the coefficient of restitution of different materials is
taken as the basis of an extendable work that can be done by students in an autonomous way. On the
whole, the work described in this paper would involve concepts of kinematics, materials science, air
drag and buoyancy, and would help students to think of physics as a whole subject instead of a set
of, more or less, isolated parts. The experiment can be done either in teaching laboratories or as
an autonomous work by students at home. Students’ smartphones and cheap balls of different materials
are the only experimental materials required to do the experiment. The proposed work also permits
the students to analyse the limitations of a physical model used in the experiment by analysing the
approximations considered in it, and then enhancing their critical thinking.