Movement & Forces: Rice Power & Ramp Race (FRICTION)

 

First, to intro friction, we had a little Ramp Race Challenge. Each child was presented a cardboard ramp and a dinky car (of equal weight and size) and challenged to create a surface on the ramp, that would cause their car to be the slowest moving.

All ramps had to be at the same angle and all cars had to self race from top to the base.

Some chose to set up speed bumps, others covered their cars and wheels. Some decided to use tape to the ramp in order to slow the speed of the wheels.

Once everyone was done, we discussed resistance and relationship between objects and where we might see this in daily life (besides your siblings!)

Next, we had our eldest demo Rice Power using a bottle of raw rice and a chopstick. After several unsuccessful attempts, we learned a few key notes: the bottle must have a neck and small opening (a mason jar did NOT have the same effect.), the bottle must be full to the brim and it's best if shaken well, to move around the rice so there is as little space as possible between grains.

Then once we got going, they had fun removing the chopstick and trying to get it back into the rice, which seemed stronger with every attempt!