Science Instructions

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Home : 2008 : March : 9

Science Instructions
By A&W

http://www.instructables.com/id/CD-Hovercraft-for-tabletop-hockey/

Here's the link that gives a pretty good description. I use wooden bobbin spools found at Hobby Lobby to glue in the center of the CD. The reason
it takes a week is that all hovercrafts will work with the original set-up. It's up to students to figure out how to make it go the farthest with one push. I think the distance this year was 31ft. Areas that students have to figure out are: friction, resistance, elastic potential energy.

The catapults are a little harder there is not link. I just came up with the idea. I

make bags that have different materials and the students work in small groups to solve the problem of launching a marshmellow the farthest. The bag usually has a plastic ruler, different sized rubberbands, small&big popsicle sticks, and different types of wooden toy blocks. This years record was 44 ft (we don't count how far it rolled, just the distance once it hit the floor.)

Each activity becomes harder and builds on what the students learned about the previous design. The next activity is going to be paper rockets which will lead to 2-liter waterbottle rockets. It's a "hoot" many of the lower grades come out to watch the competition and have something to look forward to when the get to 5th grade.

Hope this helps. If not post and I'll try to give you better instructions.