It has been an exciting time in Mr. Quigley’s kindergarten class. They have been learning about forces and motion in science.
To introduce forces and motion the students worked in pairs to discuss different objects in the classroom they could push or pull. Next, they each picked an object and demonstrated to the class whether the item could be pushed, pulled, or both.
For their first experiment students were divided into groups. They picked boys vs girls. The challenge was to make a ramp to see which group could get the ball to roll the farthest. Each round the rules were modified: pushing the ball down the ramp, letting it fall without pushing, changing the height of the ramp, adding guides to help the ball roll. They were very creative, finding new ways to improve each round.
On Day 2 they spent the morning learning about 3D printing. They listened as Mr. Quigley described how 3D printers work and researched a 3D model to download and print. They settled on a rubber band powered car. The files were sent to the printer and lots of time was spent watching the printer work. Printing the parts took a few hours and the students' excitement grew as each part finished.
The second experiment was racing the 3D printed cars to determine if pushing or pulling the car was faster. Students each took turns in pairs racing the cars in the hallway. One student would push the car, while their partner pulled the car attached with a string. They found with this experiment that pushes or pulls could be faster depending on how much force they used during their turn.