Balloon Cars? Newton meters? Science fun in year 4

What a fun week of science experiments in year 4 as children continue to learn about different forces.  This week we learned all about friction and how different surfaces create more or less friction between objects. We then used a Newton Meter to measure the level of friction on a range of surfaces.

“For a fidget spinner you would want less friction so that you can spin it around easily” - Summer

“For bike brakes friction would be an advantage because you need to tyres to stop when you want” - Joshua

“The friction between the chair and the grass was 8 Newton Meters”- Alex

Then children were really pushed to the test as they were given the challenge of making a race car that could go the farthest. Students were only equipped with straws, wheels, kebab sticks, a balloon and some tape and boy did they rise to the challenge! They used their reciprocity and resilience skills to work in pairs, discussing alterations that might make it go longer and quicker. Students had to consider how friction, driving force and air resistance could affect their design and were delighted to see their race cars zoom, whether it was short and fast or slow and far or..not so far.

 

In Birch the fastest 3 cars were made by Joe and Riley, Joshua and Alex, and Summer, Ella and Hollie. Congratulations!