Build Your Own Car
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Day 1 Schedule of Activities ⏰
3:00-3:10: Setup
3:10-3:25: LESSON WITH DR. LIN: Have the kids all go to the Science Lab (Classroom 28) for
teaching demo with Dr. Lin and then walk back to the MPR
3:30-3:50: Breakout Group- Mentors work with individual groups on their cars
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Have students complete a drawing to conceptualize their cars
Play around with the different materials to experiment with different car models
In today's session, we are going to have students work in groups to develop a balloon-powered
car with the goals of creating the fastest/creative/durable/mobile car. We will see how time goes,
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but likely we are going to stretch this activity into two sessions so that students have time to
create different prototypes and then have a race on Thursday.
As students work on different prototypes, they must complete this worksheet to measure the
speed (stopwatch), distance (ruler) and weight (weight scale) - see guide and here
Materials
Category
Potential Materials
Base
small cardboard square, empty water bottle, legos, dixie cup, paper
plate,
Wheels
bottle caps, blank CD’s
Axels
wood skewers, straws,
Materials used for
building the car
tape (duct, painters, etc.), silly putty, aluminum foil, paint,
Lesson on the Science Behind Air Powered Cars
I found this cool breakdown here that talks about the science geared towards kidshttps://sciencewithkids.com/Experiments/cool-experiments/air-powered-car-experiment.html
In this experiment kids get to experience Newton's second law of motion. In this case, energy in
the form of compressed air is stored in the balloon. When the air is allowed to release the car
experiences an unbalance force and begins to move.
When air is released, it acts like a spring. The compressed air inside the balloon is at a higher
pressure than the air outside the balloon. When the air is allowed to escape, it rapidly flows out
of the balloon, resulting in a force. Since the balloon is secured to the car, the resultant force
powers the car forward.
Since the balloon can only store a certain amount of energy, there are two factors that kids can
control to increase the speed of the air car and the distance the car travels. The two factors are
the weight of the car and the amount of friction experienced by the moving parts of the car. Parts
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like the wheel/axle connection and the actual wheel connection with the ground have a frictional
loss of energy. The more narrow the wheels, the less frictional loss with the ground. The less
contact between the axle and the wheel shaft, also results in less frictional loss.
WORKSHEET
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