Overview

Grades

3+ (Ages 8+)

Time

40 minutes per lab

Unit Essential Question(s)

How can we use patterns of change to predict an object’s continued motion, change in motion, or stability?
How does force affect motion?

Unit Understandings

The following concepts will be covered throughout this Unit:

What is force?
How to articulate the purpose of the investigation.
How to gather data, recognize patterns, and make predictions.

Lab Summary

Click on the following tabs for a summary of what the students will do and learn in each lab.

Lab 1 - Unpowered Super Car

Main Focus Question: What is force?

Students will build the unpowered Super Car to test how gravitational force affects the distance a car travels when launched from varying heights of an inclined plane.
Students will observe and measure distances cars travel in multiple test runs.

Lab 2 - Super Car

Main Focus Question: What causes force and can it be changed?

Students will build the Super Car to measure and predict the distance it will travel when a rubber band is introduced into the gear system.
Students will use knowledge of measurement and charting to make predictions.
Students will observe changes in force created by the number of turns of the knob on the rubber band and its effects on the distance travelled.

Lab 3 - Motorized Super Car

Main Focus Question: How does a motor and gears affect speed?

Students will explore how the addition of a motor affects the movement of the Super Car.
Students will observe how energy can be changed into a force from the battery to a motor. They will then explore how force is transferred from the motor to the wheel of the Motorized Super Car through gears to affect speed and distance.
Students will use the Motorized Super Car to experiment with different configurations of gears to affect the car’s speed.

Lab 4 - Steering Super Car

Main Focus Question: How do paired forces affect movement?

Students will explore balanced and unbalanced forces by experimenting with the switches of the Super Cars by turning them on in succession or in a staggered sequence. Groups will combine builds and explore how multiple forces are needed in order for the car to turn.
Students will apply their knowledge of turning with dual motors to succeed in the Driver Test Course. Students will control the switches for the motors in order to turn and navigate around obstacles.

Lab 5 - Code Super Car

Main Focus Question: How is velocity related to force?

Students will first combine Motorized Super Car builds to create the Code Super Car.
They will connect their Code Super Car to a device and use VEXcode GO to create a project to drive their car forward.
They will then explore velocity by testing the effects of different velocity parameters within the blocks of the Code Super Car project.

Unit Standards

Unit Standards will be addressed in every Lab within the Unit.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

NGSS 3-PS2-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.

How Standard is Achieved: In Lab 1, students will conduct an investigation to measure and record the distances that their Unpowered Super Car travels when force is applied to it (both by pushing and gravitational force).

During Lab 2, students will investigate the distance their Super Car travels when the knob is turned different amounts. The force of the rubber band affects the motion of the car. Lab 3 looks at balanced and unbalanced forces in relation to the gear configuration on the Motorized Super Car.

Lab 3 focused on the speed created by a gear configuration. Balanced and unbalanced forces are investigated in Lab 4 while testing the nine permutations of the motors on the movement of the Steering Super Car.

Lab 5 combines the information students have gained relating to balanced and unbalanced forces as students test the effects of velocity settings on the distance traveled by the Code Super Car.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

NGSS 3-PS2-2: Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.

How Standard is Achieved: Students will begin Lab 1 by observing their Unpowered Super Car and collect accurate data of the distances traveled so that they can discuss their predictions about the car’s movement.

In Lab 2, students will first relate their experiences to making predictions by recalling past experiences of them shooting a ball into a basketball hoop in the Engage section. Students will also engage in predictions during the Mid-Play Break by observing patterns in the data collected from Play Part 1. In Play Part 2, students will compete in distance contests to see if they can use their data to accurately predict a winner.

During Lab 3, students will use three gear configurations (little to big, same size, and big to little) to test the speed and power created for their Motorized Super Car. The testing they do in Play Part 1 will be used to inform their actions in Play Part 2.

Lab 4 has students use the data collection from Play Part 1 to inform their ability to navigate the Drive Test course in Play Part 2.

In the last Lab of the Unit, Lab 5, students will test and observe how different velocity settings affect the movement of the Code Super Car.

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