Rubber Band Cars Lesson Plan
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illustrated instructions !
Rubber band cards can be used in fun activities to
teach a number of important topics and encourage discovery and
exploration. Below is one example of how this activity works:
"I took the rubberband cars to a 3rd
grade class that was studying energy. The visit went very well.
My guide puts more stress on the steps
of letting the students freely play for 5 minutes to understand their
cars; provide a goal for the upcoming experimentation and then guide
the kids through brainstorming all the factors of the experiment that
can be altered to effect the goal; a 5 to 10 minute round of fee
testing; three rounds of one group at a time, controlled testing for
all to observe and learn from; and finally the runs that count.
For instance, I chose not to mention
rubberbands on the wheels for traction (though we were already running
on carpet), and found that one group figured it out for themselves in
about three minutes and that 9 of the 10 groups were using rubberbands
on the wheels within 5 minutes of being handed the cars and
rubberbands.
A wise science teacher once told me
that a class should always be expected to be more clever and able to
learn than I assume they will be. The kids proved that to be true.
Once they talked about other factors that could be varied, it was
amazing to see how a huge diversity of potential solutions quickly
converged to one or two workable solutions.
In this setting, we had a nine or ten
foot long, 2.5-foot wide track taped out on the carpet. The goal was
to send your car down the track and land it in an endzone that was
just over a foot deep.
I left the cars with the teacher for
another 4 class days and heard the kids continued to both improve on
their designs for the original experiment and to come up with new
challenges to test themselves with. That result is really what I was
looking for with this activity. I thank you for your generous
assistance."
Activity Summary
Objective:
-
To have the students understand friction and traction of toy
cars on various surfaces.
Materials:
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160-200 rubber bands of various sizes
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1
rubber band car per student or group
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one 30 ft. plus tape measure
-
masking tape
Procedure:
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Define the terms 1. Friction, 2. Traction, 3. Force.
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Demonstrate how to operate the cars.
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Distribute a car to each student.
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Distribute a piece of tape to each student. Each student should
write him/her name on it. (This is to mark how far the car travels.)
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Show the class the start line.
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Encourage the students when positive things are occurring.
-
Allow the students see what factors will cause their car to
travel the farthest.
-
Repeated trials, with modifications to the car, may help in
increasing the distance traveled.
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- - NEW for 2006/07 - -
Rubber band cars are now available at no cost to Idaho
elementary teachers for classroom use. Please contact Idaho EPSCoR
at epscor@uidaho.edu
for more information.
To purchase rubber band cars contact:
Mr. John Turner
1101 G Avenue
La Grande OR 97850
Phone: 541-963-4073
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