Making a dragster move over different surfaces.                                        Back to index

This lesson was carried out with a class of 25, Year 1 pupils with two helpers in the classroom. The terms topic was forces and the children had

The objective of the lesson is to develop the meaning of rough, smooth, push and pull and therefore develop Sc0. The children are also just at the stage of switching between non-standard and standard measures so this gives the opportunity of using non-standard measures to record how far the dragster moves. This is achieved by using rolls of coloured paper strips which are cut and then stuck on an A2 sheet with prepared axes. Pupils get a chance of predicting and hypothesizing when discussing how far the dragster might go on sandpaper when compared to desktop.

Equipment                                                                                                                                                        Back to top of page

The ramp is made out of cardboard. Cut a strip about 2 cm wide and 15cm long. Score it down the middle(lengthwise) and fold to give a  V-shaped track. Cut the support out of the same card          . Try to avoid making it to big. If you get the size right when the marble rolls down the slope it will not go far enough to push the dragster of the desk top. The support can be fixed to the ramp using a couple of strips of sellotape. The dragster can be cut from the same piece of cardboard

The other equipment is a marble and a sheet of sandpaper some strips of carpet and a roll of measuring paper strip.

Enough equipment was made so that groups of three children could carry out the investigation.

Getting going                                                                                                                 Back to top of page

Stage 1

Sitting on the mat the children were asked about how you could make a marble move. Push, pull, blow were words that were used. These were put onto the board with the spelling prompted by the children. They were then shown the equipment and the marble was placed half way up the track and let go. The dragster moved across the table. After repeating this the children were asked to predict where  they would need to put the marble to make the dragster go a long way and where it would be placed to make it go only a short distance. They then went away to test their prediction.

Stage 2

After checking the predictions the children came back to the mat to discuss what they had found out. They were then asked how they could measure how far the dragster had moved. One or two children mentioned a ruler so the class were shown how you could unroll some of the paper tape and after placing it alongside the slope and the dragster cut it so that it recorded how far the dragster had moved.

Stage 3

The children now practiced this. With the marble in the position where the dragster moved the farthest they had to do a measurement of how far it moved....not once, not twice but THREE times so that they should end up with three bits of paper. For those children who worked that little bit faster you can ask for more than three strips ( some groups produced eight strips).This was followed by a feedback session on the mat. The results from some groups were very inconsistent but this was as expected ... this was an exercise that developed measurement skills not one that tested them.

Stage 4

Supposing you tried to make the dragster move on sandpaper instead of the table top, what would happen? Children felt the sandpaper and the word rough was used and compared to smooth. They predicted what would happen. They were then presented with a piece of carpet and ask to make a similar prediction. The pupils then left the mat to carryout the investigation and to measure the distance the dragster moved.

Recording

A piece of A3 paper was prepared with two axes drawn and the strips stuck onto the paper producing a bar chart which was then displayed and discussed by the children.

Commentary                                                                                                                                                            Back to top of page

This investigation was first carried out at Key Stage 2. The variables involved are such that it can provide an investigation at KS2 which will provide a line graph and a tremendous number of control variables. At KS1 it was just as fruitful. Most of the investigations were very unfair and because of this it allows discussion of ways of making it fair or introducing the idea of fairness. It gave children the opportunity of predicting firstly on the basis of their own experience and then on the basis of roughness. Many children still did not really grasp the importance of the concept of roughness and harness and softness were still confusing the issue but this did give plenty of opportunities for developing these concepts.