We took advantage of the Big Pedal and used the children’s scooters to investigate movement and in particular how to speed up and slow down.
Back in the classroom, we continued this learning by carrying out a scientific test.
What would you want to test with the following equipment?
Emily suggested we test how far the car travels when it goes down the ramp at different heights so we planned a test considering our test question, predictions, method and safety. A fair test is very important so we decided which variable would change (the height of the ramp) and what we would keep the same (the ramp surface, car, starting position and who would let the car go).
When the ramp was placed at the top of the ramp, the car travelled 114cm.
When the ramp was placed at the middle of the ramp, the car travelled 105cm.
At the bottom of the ramp, the car didn’t travel at all!
Measuring and data collection were important parts of the tests.
Finally, we considered our initial question: does the car travel further when the ramp is higher? From our results, we concluded that the car did travel further when the ramp was higher.
Thanks, Emily. That was a great test to suggest.
What else would you want to test?