Racing Cars

Yea! I found something cool for my students to do. We finally FINALLY made it through chemistry. We are now on physics. I asked another teacher (and coach also) if she would want to do this with us because we have the same schedule. She agreed! We are going to be making the balloon powered race cars! Here are a few sites to see about it:

NASA contest
Middle School Contest
How to build
Lots of pictures

I've decided to pair up my kids and also give them one class period to work on it at school. We will actually be going to the computer lab so they can find out if they want things like big or small wheels, narrow or wide build, long or short, heavy or light. They will get to do a little research and then they will have to draw a diagram and label the parts they will use to build. This will not have to look exactly like the car they turn in, but I'm not going to tell them that.

On race day they will have to find the distance their car traveled and the time it took to go that distance. They will also have to calculate the average speed of their car using the formula to find speed.

The car will be graded using a rubric and will not qualify to race if it does not meet the rules.
1. Has to have a name
2. Wheels have to be made. They can not be anything that is already made to be used for a wheel.
3. Has to be balloon powered.

We will also have prizes of course! I can't wait to see what they come up with!

-coach b