This week I investigated how different surfaces affect the momentum of marbles. I chose to roll one large and one small marble on the hardwood floor, a fleece blanket, an area rug, and a tile floor. I expected to find that it was easiest for the marbles to roll across the hardwood floor and hardest for them to roll across the rug. My findings were pretty much what my initial thoughts were.
At first I wanted to make sure that the size of the marble did not affect the experiment results. It was very difficult for me to figure this out. I had difficulty ensuring that I used the exact same amount of force on the marbles when rolling them. If I were to conduct the experiment again I would use something that would apply a consistent force for all the surface areas. I am having some difficulty deciding on the best approach to doing this.
If I were to conduct this experiment with students I would have some students place the blanket over different surfaces as well without discussing that differing variable. Then we could discuss what why the results were different with the blanket. This could lead to great conversation, and help students apply their new knowledge.
To make this experiment more fun for my students I could conduct a marble race. Students could pick which surface they want to race on. I could also place a target in the floor and see if students could cause the marble to stop in the middle of the bulls-eye. This could make the experiment more engaging and fun for the students, and help them to see that you need to apply different amounts of force depending on its rolling surface. They can also learn that different amounts of friction are placed on the marble based on the rolling surface as well. This would be a great experiment for second graders.
I do like your idea of having a target for your student's marbles to try to reach. This would be a good lesson on how much force, depending on the surface and friction, they would need to apply to reach the target.
ReplyDeleteWhat if you had the different surface like carpet or hardwood on a decline that way you could place the marble at the top and then let it slide down. That would help you control how much force you use. I like your idea of having marble races, that would definitely get my attention. And I definitely love your title for this assignment!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the idea of using the bulls-eye as a target for the students to get the marble to stop in. Maybe you could even add in the idea of making the marble roll across two different surfaces to stop on a bulls-eye. For instance start on a rug and end on hardwood. This seems like a great investigation for middle school students, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteIf the kids use paper towel rolls, angled the same, they could use this as the start of the marble race. Putting the marble in the tube will have them all starting off with the same amount of force. The kids would love it, too.
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