Overview

Grades

3+ (Ages 8+)

Time

40 minutes per lab

Unit Essential Question(s)

What affects how the Super Car moves?

Unit Understandings

The following concepts will be covered throughout this Unit:

How data can be used to predict results and make estimations.
How variables (number of turns, surface type) can affect data, such as distance traveled and average speed.
Average speed is the relationship between total distance traveled and elapsed time.

Lab Summary

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

Lab 1 - How Far?

Main Focus Question: What affects distance traveled?

Students will build the Super Car build to measure and predict the distance it will travel.
Students will use knowledge of measurement to collect data and make predictions.
Students will identify that the number of turns affects the speed of the Super Car through observation.

Lab 2 - How Does it Go?

Main Focus Question: What affects speed?

Students will use the Super Car build to experiment with variables that change how fast the Super Car travels.
Students will observe, record and compare data for how fast the Super Car travels in various conditions.

Lab 3 - How Fast?

Main Focus Question: How do I calculate average speed?

Students will measure how quickly the Super Car moves by calculating the average speed of the Super Car.
Students will learn that average speed is the relationship between total distance traveled and elapsed time.

Unit Standards

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

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

NGSS 4-PS3-1: Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.

How Standard is Achieved: In Lab 1, students use data collected in the Play sections to form an explanation for how the number of turns of the Orange Knob impacts the distance traveled by the Super Car. Students will share their explanations and reasoning in the Mid-Play Break and Share sections.

In Lab 2, the Mid-Play Break and the Play sections ask students to engage in discussions where they will explain how the energy used to move the Super Car (with the rubber band) is related to the speed of the car. Students will also explain how changing the variable (number of turns, surface type) affects how far and how fast the Super Car travels.

In the Lab 3 Share section, students will explain how fast the Super Car is moving by explaining the steps to how they calculated the average speed of each of the Super Car trials.

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