Mass vs. Distance!
During our last few labs students started asking questions about what else could effect how far a car traveled. A wondering that popped up in several notebooks was whether or not the size and weight of a car would effect how far a car travelled down a ramp. We decided to develop a lab around this idea by testing 4 different sized cars.
In order to complete a fair test we kept all other components (variables) the same except for the size of the car. The students understood that if we changed other components we wouldn't know what caused our results and therefore we couldn't really answer our question.
After testing 4 different sized cars the students shared their data with one another as well as kids from other classes. They wanted to see if kids from other classes got data that was similar to them since they were using the same materials. Our 12 teams ended up getting data that was a bit across the board. Although most of the groups saw that cars with greater mass travelled a farther distance, some groups did not.
When we shared out with one another what our data displayed, we also began to talk about "WHY" we got data that looked like this. Some groups mentioned that their cars got stuck on the ramp. Others mentioned that the car always veered left and therefor the distance traveled was not as far as they thought. Some students said that the car would run alongside the measuring tape slowing down the car and reducing the distance. These were all important factors to consider.
Please take a look at the lab below:
