During the month of May, eighth grade science students immersed themselves in the annual physics project, Physics 500, where they brainstormed, designed, constructed and raced a cardboard car.
They work in groups of four and brainstorm ideas, draw preliminary designs in their “race journals,” decide on a team name, logo, and slogan and engineer their cardboard car. In the classroom, they studied simple machines. As the project rolled on, students were assigned a “pit” space in the basement where they could construct their cars. After receiving their first distribution of cardboard, they moved on to making measurements, hypotheses and detailed sketches. Teams built cars using cardboard, glue, and PVC pipes that could carry a 25-pound weight and a mannequin driver. The cars competed in a gravity-powered distance race on May 24. The goal was to see how far the cars could travel, rather than how fast they could go!
Congratulations to “The Agency” on winning this year’s Physics 500.