The Effect of Forces

Summary:
Students will create a Duplo Lego Vehicle and test how forces affect motion. Students will be placed in groups of 3-4 and be given a force to test. Students will decide which is the best way to test the force and therefore design their vehicle and perform the test. The forces being tested are springs, magnets, applied force with washers, friction with sandpaper, and air resistance with a bag. Students will test the forces and gather data and see how the vehicle's motion is affected with the force. Students will gather data with the force and without the force to compare results. Students will follow the Scientific Method and present their findings to the class.

Materials:
-Duplo Legos (for building vehicle)
-8 Duplo Lego Chassis (one is needed per group of 4 so this will depend how many students you have)
-One 1 inch Spring
-Timer
-2 Magnet blocks
-Newton's scale
-Sandpaper
-Paper Clip
-Small Pulley
-String (approx 24 cm long)
-4 large Washers (Amount will depend on how many Newtons students want to use. One Newton equals to 3-4 washers)
-Measuring tape (measure distance)
-Masking tape (to write group names)
-7 containers (need one per group,
flipped to be used with white boards)
-7 small white boards (need one per group, to be used as ramp)

Agenda:
Day 1
-Students will be given instructions and assigned a force (spring, magnetic, applied, friction, air resistance), placed in groups, write their question and hypothesis, and build their vehicle. Once they build their vehicle, students need to place their group names with masking tape on vehicle (remove chassis to be used for the next period) and keep Duplo Lego with group’s name to be used for the next day.

Day 2
-Students will test their assigned force and write the procedures, as well as gather data. Students will gather data with and without the force to compare results. Students will be asked to make video using student’s phone so they can show the rest of the class when they present.

Day 3
-Students will graph and write a conclusion. Groups will begin to present their findings to the class today.

Day 4
-Groups will finish presenting their findings (discuss procedure, data, graph, conclusion and show video) to the class.