Science Update

Our students have been doing a wonderful job during our science explorations! This week we explored how the weight of an object can affect the amount of force it has on another object. The children performed a series of collision tests using metal, glass, and cork balls of varying sizes. We placed them on a track and predicted and tested the impact they would have when colliding with each other. The children noticed that the cork ball did not have enough force to move the metal or glass balls. They also noticed that the small metal ball had more force than the large glass ball. We practiced raising and lowering the ramp that the balls were rolling down- to see if the incline of the ramp (speed) would affect the impact of the collision. The children did a really great job of not only taking their experiments seriously, but predicting, testing, questioning, observing, AND taking turns, too! (Proud teacher moment!) We went on to investigate the concept of friction. The children and I conducted a number of penny races! We placed one of our classroom tables on an incline, and covered half of the table with a number of different materials (sand paper, wax paper, plastic wrap, newsprint, and even carpet!) We raced two pennies down the table- one was down the control group side, the plain table, and the other was down the variable side. Again the children had their scientist hats on and were eager to feel the material prior to each race in order to make a solid prediction. They noticed that the more "rough, sticky, or bumpy" the material was, the SLOWER the penny traveled- if at all! We saw friction happening with our own two eyes! We went on to investigate friction with a few of our shoes. We first took a look at the bottoms of the shoes to decide which shoe we thought would have the most friction and which would have the least, and then we tested them out. The children noticed that the flatter shoes that were a little bit more "worn" moved much more quickly down the table because they had less "bumps" and ultimately less friction. The shoes that had more bumps or ridges seemed to grip the table a bit more showing more friction! There was one show that didn't move at all! The kids really grasped how the force of friction can sloooow things down!

Here is another link where the kids can practice changing the amount of friction on the surface of the track to see if they can get the truck to cross the finish line. Give it a try! :)