LESSON DESCRIPTION:
Sure it’s fun to build cars out of craft sticks, but there is more to it than meets the eye. Students get to explore how forces affect the performance of the vehicles they have constructed. When their cars are completed, students can either test them on an inclined plane or make them “jet powered” by attaching air-filled-balloons to their cars.

TIME REQUIRED: One-Two Hours

OBJECTIVES:
Students learn some of the basic physics involved in the design of automobiles. Students learn how such factors as vehicle mass, inertia, rotational inertia, and friction affect the performance of their vehicle.

FACILITIES REQUIREMENTS:
Indoors or outdoors; requires table space; tables will be covered to protect them from the low temperature glue; requires access to an electrical outlet.

SAFETY:
Students are given a safety message for working with the glue guns.

CALIFORNIA SCIENCE STANDARDS ALIGNMENT

Kindergarden: 1st Grade: 2nd Grade:   3rd Grade:   4rth Grade:   5th Grade:   6th Grade: