If you are a devoted MichaelJPerkins Blog follower, you might remember that the 4th and 5th graders are studying energy in science this semester. At the beginning of the year, they were asked to write and draw their beginning ideas about what energy is and where it comes from. Christian's response show up above. If you'd like to see more of our students' ideas you can click here and see many others.
Well, time has passed and the kids are now learning about different kinds of energy--and experimenting with it. One project they've done is to explore the questions: How will rubber band energy affect the movement of the little cars they built? And how will twisting the rubber bands more and more affect the movement as well?
To do the experiment accurately, the kids had to set up a system of measuring their results. They made tracks outside in the school yard.
Then they marked the distances along the track.
Next they twisted their rubber band a certain number of times.
Ready...
Set...
GO!
Of course, the question was: How far did it go? The kids had to measure the distance and record the results.
Then they had to try twisting the rubber bands more and more and record what happened. They found out that more twists = more energy = more distance. They also learned about two specific kinds of energy. You can read what they wrote about it below.
