Exploring Materials with Sliders
Lesson 6
Step 1:
Last Class Review:
What do we remember about how different materials affected our rollers? Which ones made them slooooow down and which ones made them speed up? Did any make our rollers roll a bit wonky?
Focus of this class:
This class we will be continuing our detective task and working in groups of 4 detectives (different from the previous class). The headquarters have informed me you’re your task is to determine what materials can make your slider 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 remind students how to test the material on the ramp
Step 2:
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:
towels, plastic, carpeting, corrugated cardboard, sandpaper, fabric, tinfoil and liquid soap.
Students will get to explore, predict and observe how materials affect sliders. This time they are able to draw on previous knowledge and think about how the results may differ with a sliding object.
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 Sliders.
We will have a class discussion about why we think the materials had these effects and why our results may differ from or be the same as the previous class.
Add to brainstorm chart
Take the time to compare and contrast rollers and sliders and have a class conversation about why we may have seen the similarities and differences that we did.
​Materials:
Books or blocks to prop ramp Plywood or other surface to use as ramp
Different objects to test down the ramp (see example of rollers)
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.