1.  Challenge: to design a rubber band car out of simple materials that will travel a distance of at least 3 meters within a 1 meter wide track  Piece of corrugated cardboard  4 plastic plates  4 rubber bands  3 unsharpened pencils  4 metal paperclips  16 thumbtacks  Scissors  Masking tape  No sling-shot cars! RUBBER BAND RACERS

2.  Partner-read “Student Reference Sheets”  In groups, meet and develop a plan for your car  One “Student Worksheet” per group  Use plain white paper to doodle/make sketches  Draw agreed-upon design on “Student Worksheet”, determine materials needed  Be prepared to present your initial design to class on Friday RUBBER BAND RACERS – DAY 1

3.  Each team presents its initial design to class  Feedback: Begin with “What I like about your design is…”  Pay attention to and learn from other teams to inform your redesign  Teams redesign to incorporate feedback  Journal Entry  Sketch of your revised initial design, including labels for parts RUBBER BAND RACERS – DAY 2

4.  Reconvene your group  Share additional design ideas, research with your teammates  Decide on revised design  Journal entry  Prompt: “What I am curious about this week in science is how my team’s design for a rubber band racer will perform…”  Title: Rubber Band Racer Design  Describe the design  Sketch the diagram, label parts  Gallery Walk  One member of each team remains at table  Others visit other teams to learn from their design ideas  Reconvene your group to share what you learned from other teams RUBBER BAND RACERS – DAY 3

5.  Only “A-seat” students get materials for their groups  Fulfill your trading obligations – give away what you promised you would give away, request the materials you were promised on Wednesday during ‘trading’ activity  Notice variation in rubber bands; another opportunity to trade?  Build your rubber band racer as designed  You will be reusing as much of the materials in your redesign, so do not destroy your materials in this construction phase!  During construction you may decide you need additional materials or that your design needs to change  Designate 1 person in your group who will circulate amongst other groups to see if he/she can locate and procure that additional material  In journals, make sure every one in group makes a new sketch and revises their materials list  Write your names somewhere on your car, put it in the area designated by block; write team initials on cups of extras  Finalizing construction tomorrow! RUBBER BAND RACERS – DAY 4 – CONSTRUCTION!

6.  15 minutes: Final construction of racers  Test it!  Must travel 3m within a 1m wide track  Collect data (yes, use the stop watch on your phone), calculate car’s speed (distance traveled per unit of time, or S=d/t)  Observe tests of other teams and how their different designs worked  Reconvene your team; evaluate your team’s results; redesign your racer; record it in each journal RUBBER BAND RACERS – DAY 5 COMPLETE CONSTRUCTION & TEST Rubber band car data Distance traveled within track (m)Time traveled within track (S)Speed (m/S) Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Average

7.  Reconvene your group  Evaluate your initial design by answering these questions as a group  Did you succeed in creating a rubber band car that traveled 3m within the track? If so, how far did it travel, and what made it succeed? If not, why did it fail?  What designs or methods did you see other teams try that you thought worked well?  To do it over again, how would your planned design change? Why? What would it look like? What materials would you use?  In your journals, write an entry responding to the “What I learned this week in science is…” using your answers to the above questions. Make a sketch. RUBBER BAND RACERS – DAY 6 EVALUATE & REDESIGN

8.  Take 15 minutes:  To make final decisions with your group about your FINAL design  Write down those decisions and sketch of final design in your journal  Build your racers! Round 2  Feel free to trade materials  In Journals, make sure you have written down your final list of materials  If you have made any last-minute tweaks to your design as you construct, be sure to document those changes in your journal RUBBER BAND RACERS – DAY 7

9.  Build your racers! Round 2  Feel free to trade materials  In Journals, make sure you have written down your final list of materials  If you have made any last-minute tweaks to your design as you construct, be sure to document those changes in your journal RUBBER BAND RACERS – DAY 8

10.  10 minutes: Final construction of racers  Test it!  Must travel 3m within a 1m wide track  Collect data (yes, use the stop watch on your phone), calculate car’s speed (distance traveled per unit of time, or S=d/t)  Observe tests of other teams and how their different designs worked  Reconvene your team; begin to evaluate your team’s results RUBBER BAND RACERS – DAY 9 TEST! Rubber band car data Distance traveled within track (m)Time traveled within track (S)Speed (m/S) Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Average

11.  In groups, evaluate your team’s results by discussing answers to specific prompts  Proceed prompt by prompt  First discuss your response with your group  Write your response in your journal  Number your response based on the Prompt number  Use complete sentences so the reader does not need to look up the original prompts  See handout for the prompts (page 16 of your science binder)  Decide who on your team will present each prompt – make it as evenly distributed as possible  Pick some one on your team to serve as the official artist; this person will draw a diagram of your final tested design  Be prepared to present the evaluation on Monday! RUBBER BAND RACERS – DAY 10 EVALUATE & COMMUNICATE

12.  Using prompts on Evaluation handout (page 16 of your science binder), prepare a formal report that communicates your evaluation  Times New Roman, 12 point font  1-inch margins, double-spaced  Be sure to use the rubric to guide your writing of each response  Focus/topic sentence  Specific examples  Detailed explanations  Concluding sentence  Work on this today and tomorrow in lab, due next Wed 10/29  Save on your Google Drive or on Copper Drive RUBBER BAND RACERS EVALUATE & COMMUNICATE

13.  Final report due Wed 10/29 at beginning of class.  Five (5) points deducted from earned grade for every day late  Before turning it in, be sure you…  Look again at rubric and evaluate your draft; revise it!  Proofread for spelling and grammar  Include non-text requirements  Data tables (one for first model, one for second model)  Plot graph  Two diagrams (one of your final design, one of your ideal design)  To turn it in:  Print it and bring it with you no later than 10/29; OR  “Share it” through Google: lisa.milligan@weymouthschools.org  Separately, turn in your data tables, graph, and diagrams by due date RUBBER BAND RACERS COMMUNICATE