Exploring Materials with Rollers
Lesson 5
Step 1:
Last Class Review:
Revisit brainstorm chart
Do we remember some of the differences between rollers and sliders?
What objects did we say were sliders? Rollers? Both?
Focus of this class:
This class we will be working in groups of 4 detectives. The headquarters have informed me you’re your task is to determine what materials can make your roller go down the ramp the fastest and the slowest. This is very important work… do you think you’re up for it?
Class demo to show how to test the material out on the ramp.
Step 2:
In groups of 4, students will be testing out materials on their ramp to see how it affects the speed/ path of a roller.
The class will test each material at the same time. Before we conduct the test, the teacher will ask the class what their predictions are for the material and why.
Materials include:
towels, plastic, carpeting, corrugated cardboard, sandpaper, fabric, tinfoil and liquid soap.
Students will get to explore, predict and observe how materials affect rollers.
It is important to go off of what students say. Can introduce words such as friction if students explain it within their reasoning for why a material might slow down or speed up an object.
Step 3:
Throughout the lesson, talk about if our predictions were correct or not.
During this time, we will record on our chart the fast materials, the slow materials and the materials that changed the path of our roller.
We will have a class discussion about why we think the materials had these effects.
Add to brainstorm chart
Brief intro to next class: same experiment but with sliders
Materials:
Books or blocks
Plywood or another surface to use as ramp
Different objects to test down the ramp (sliders)
Chart paper & marker
Marker or object to mark the distance of the objects
Ramp materials: towels, plastic, carpeting, corrugated cardboard, sandpaper, fabric, tinfoil and liquid soap.