| Grade Level | System Requirement | Product Number |
|---|---|---|
| Grades 3-6 | Apple 128K | A214 |
| Force and motion are the subjects of these lessons as your students investigate the effects that five variables — car weight, friction/lubrication, and shape, and ramp angle and length — will have on the distance a car will travel once it leaves an inclined plane. Students are then challenged to find a set of conditions that will make a car travel a given distance.Includes three difficulty levels.Features the technique of experimentation with controlled variables. | ||
Introduction
Wood Car Rally is a discovery-learning simulation that capitalizes on the natural curiosity of students and encourages them to use their curiosity while learning scientific content and developing appropriate scientific processes.
Wood Car Rally is a part of MECC’s Science Inquiry Collection. Like all the packages in this collection, Wood Car Rally features a strong process orientation while presenting material that is firmly anchored in the elementary and junior high school science curriculum.
In Wood Car Rally, students are challenged to determine how each of three car characteristics and two ramp characteristics affect the distance a “wood car” will travel down a runway.
Students make this determination by testing cars with various combinations of car shape, weight, and lubrication, as well as ramp length and angle. As the cars are tested, students observe and record their results. The information collected will enable students to determine how each characteristic affects the distance a car will travel.
Physical science concepts addressed by or related to Wood Car Rally include:
- motion and the laws of motion;
- forces;
- gravity;
- friction;
- and lubrication.
Science process skills developed by Wood Car Rally include:
- observing;
- communicating;
- inferring;
- comparing;
- organizing;
- relating;
- designing an experiment;
- and estimating.
Manual
In Production