Video-Guided STEM Challenge
Fun With Friction
Learn about the forces of gravity and friction with this fun project. A day of play and Sledding at the 3DuxDesign Winter Park
1. Watch the video to learn about forces
2. Gather craft supplies (materials listed below)
3. Design your experiment
4. Test and record your data
5. Take photos and share your project with us to be featured!
Materials: 3DuxDesign connectors and cardboard, scissors, markers/colored pencils/paint, small weights (ziplock bag with sand or rice, etc.), variety of smooth and tough surfaces (paper, sandpaper, foil, plastic bags, etc.), stop-watch
Grades: K - 5 Duration: Duration: 30 - 60 Minutes Subjects: Forces, Engineering
Guidelines:
- Draft project design on paper. Include the materials needed and construction of sled and the hill. Include at least 3 different surfaces to test with different textures.
- Sled design and build. Consider design factors that will increase speed like materials for bottom surface, weight, and distribution of weight
- Hill design and build. Consider how to construct the hill and how you will exchange surface materials easily. Of note, slope of hill should remain the same for each part of the experiment
- Lab sheets: Create a hypothesis for what will happen with each surface. Create a data sheet to document speed and any observations with each trial.
- Refine project. Did anything not work the way imagined? Think about why and redesign the structures or project to improve. Repeat experiment and collect data
- Conclusion: what were the results and explain.
