Ramps

Children in grades Kindergarten through Second Grade have been exploring ramps in science one afternoon a week.  We started by discussing what a ramp was and what it might be used for.  Our first experiments looked at the different surfaces on our ramps and how that effected the distance our car would go off the bottom of the ramp.  We talked about what a variable is and how we could only change one variable at a time.  So for each test, we needed to use the same car, the same number of blocks to prop the ramp up and measure from the same point.  We even discussed "letting the car go" instead of pushing it and why it would go down the ramp - GRAVITY!  Our second set of tests involved the height of the ramps.  Students quickly found out that too few blocks as well as too many blocks made the ramp unusable as a means for getting the car to travel any distance.  As we finish out our unit, we'll be exploring the variable of weight on our ramps as well as trying to make the "perfect" ramp that will make our object go the farthest.