Playing With Friction

Dear Team 24 families,

In Theme Studies, we have been studying Position and Motion. We understand that force is a push or a pull that can start, stop or change movement.

On Tuesday, we expanded upon this and explored friction. Through a short reading activity, we learned the definition of friction and that the surface impacts the amount of friction.  Since science is all about DOING, we put our new knowledge to the test! Students applied force to a race cars on various surfaces to determine which surfaces increased the friction and slowed down the car sooner. We made predictions and then tested the amount of friction of linoleum, the classroom carpet, shag carpet, concrete and sand.

Winners: concrete and linoleum had the least amount of friction and allowed for the farthest travel with our cars.
In last place: Sand and shag carpet had a large amount of friction and made racing our cars difficult.

We applied this understanding to different situations. Less friction is great when racing a car, but not so ideal when driving on icy roads!

Students will further apply their understanding of friction when designing and creating a Moon Buggy that will travel down a ramp carrying a load. *Thank you for bringing in recycled materials for this construction. We will be taking materials all week.

~Ms. Burland