Week 2: Ramps and Steepness

The class observes how the children in this video build ramps from everyday objects and race objects down the ramps.

Children set the steepness of two ramps and send two identical coconuts down the ramps, comparing their speed. They share ideas about why one coconut rolled faster than the other, or why both coconuts rolled at the same speed.

Children make a binder clip slide slowly and quickly by adjusting the steepness of a cardboard tube.

Children send two objects down a single ramp to find out which one rolls faster. They predict what will happen if they increase the steepness of the ramp. Will the same object still be faster?

Place a large marble in a sump pump hose (or other wide, flexible, ridged tubing) and make it roll—fast and slow, back and forth. Listen to the sounds it makes!

Children try to make a coconut land on a star while exploring how the amount of force, the steepness of a ramp, and the surface texture of the pathway affect how far a coconut will roll.

Children make a binder clip slide slowly and quickly by adjusting the steepness of a cardboard tube.

Children send two objects down a single ramp to find out which one rolls faster. They predict what will happen if they increase the steepness of the ramp. Will the same object still be faster?

The class observes how the children in this video build ramps from everyday objects and race objects down the ramps.