Phase 1 of this project was to build the cars - anyone who has ever tried to build flat-pack furniture will know how challenging these kind of instructions are.....
Serious studying of instructions (we also had an instructional video)…..
We had to measure and cut pieces to size according to the instructions....
Just right!
Once we had a basic structure we could then look to add electrics and a motor to power the vehicle...
Serious concentration needed....!
We have been really enjoying this project!
After we had built our cars (after much trouble shooting and refinement) we were ready to set up our experiments. Each pupil designed their own experiment to test one independent variable (which would either be a modification to the course or to the vehicle itself) and a dependent variable (either speed or distance travelled).
Some of the modifications were very unique. Look! A solar-powered car!!
Some brilliant mathematics was also needed for pupils who needed to calculate the mean scores (we repeated the trials multiple times for reliability) and some pupils took on the challenge of calculating the speed in km/h based on the data they had.
Trundle-wheel guitar solo!
It also happened to be the day of our 'glitter run' so some of the scientists' outfits were a little unusual!
This car was one of the very fastest - it's actually powered by two independent motors!
Since taking these photos earlier today, we have been using our data to make some fantastic graphs and charts of our results.
This has been a great STEM project and we are looking forward to tomorrow when we finally get to take the cars out and RACE!
*UPDATED*
The race!
…..and the winners were....
Well done team!
