Gravity Cars - A Fourth Grade Unit

-
We started with some Labs that reviewed how to use certain science tools (triple-beam balance, rulers, stopwatch, beakers, graduated cylinders and microscopes. After sessions with each tool, we had a "quiz" on using each of them.

Next we had a mini lesson on attachement techniques (flanges, slots, brass fasteners, etc.) which was a review for some and a new concept for others.

The students were then asked to write down the first "science" thing that came to their mind when they heard a given word. The words were: gravity, mass, prototype, distance, weight distribution, friction and time. This gave us a base line of concepts important to this project.

Now the project:
     In groups of two, create something that will travel down a ramp and move along the floor the farthest, using just gravity.
     The only material they could only use was: 1 sheet of oaktag, 1 wooden skewer, 4 plastic wheels, pennies, and masking tape. Tools included: scissors, hole punch, rulers, cutting board and ceramic box cutter (check out https://www.sliceproducts.com/ ...I don' have a stake in the company, but I love there stuff).
     They were given a design sheet and set off to work.


     Over 9 class sessions the students designed, created, tested and made adjustments to their creations.







We then did final test and collected the data (distance, time traveled and any other anecdotal information they thought necessary.



Finally, the students were asked to write a reflection piece on the whole process. Prompts included: "We got the results we did because..."; "______ affected the performance of our creation by _____."; and "During this activity we...". They were also asked to give examples of how/when/why they saw friction, weight distribution, and gravity was evident in this experience.

After reading all their papers, we debriefed as a class and discussed other concepts like potential and kinetic energy, inertia, and conservation of energy.

Here are all their creations:



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

4th Grade - Trimester #3 Major Project

-
Image
The last challenge also came from a teacher at 'Iolani School...Kathy Warner, Lower School Science Teacher has been doing this project as part of her space unit in 3rd grade. Over the 4 years I worked at 'Iolani, she graciously asked me to assister her in helping to add more Maker Ed aspects to this project. The last year I worked with her, we had the students using rapid prototyping (3D printers, & laser cutters), Scratch programing, MakeyMakeys, simple circuits and green screen video. When the curriculum was bring developed here, I knew I had to use this project. The first part of this unit was to have each student research something in space (planet, asteroid, galaxy, black hole, etc.) and create a poster using Google Slides. These posters would be presented to the class to show what each person had learned (I'll write up the poster project at a later time). It was also a spring board for Project SEV (Space Exploration Vehicle) #3 Design challenge:  Imagine...
Read more

Our First Attempt - Doing Science

-
Image
The idea for this unit came from  @ taralynnakamoto One lesson from this past year was used to teach the students about things like mass, energy, motion, gravity, friction, etc. We also wanted them to learn and use design techniques (for example, the design process, and how to attach object together) and engineering concepts like weight distribution, strength, stability, structural integrity, etc. First we used a thinking routine from Harvard University Graduate school of Education's Project Zero group, Agency by Design. This particular activity asked student to look at an object and record its parts, purposes and complexities. By dong this, the students had to really think about the object, how it was made, why the designer/inventor might have done things a certain way. The parts and their purposes was pretty straight forward, but complexities gave them a little trouble. However, when one student shared their thoughts, it made sense to the rest. For example, one of the ways t...
Read more