Hands-On Activity for Understanding How Forces Impact Speed

Need an engaging activity to help students understand how forces affect the speed of an object? Here is a very simple activity that will not only help students understand the concept, but get them excited to learn.

Force & Speed Investigation

Time: 30 minutes

Materials:

• Meter Stick
• Toy Cars
• Stopwatch

Steps:

1. Measure 1 meter on the ground. 
2. Line up the toy car's front wheel at the 0 cm mark.
3. Give your car a light push.
4. When pushed someone should start the stopwatch.
5. Record the time it takes to reach the end in the space below.
6. Follow steps 1-5 again for a medium sized push and then a harder push.

Questions to Support Student Understanding:

1. Can you predict what would happen if you gave the hardest push possible?
2. Students should understand the larger the force (push) the greater distance the object can travel in less time. They should also understand the greater the force the faster the object will go.
3. What is the connection between force and speed?
4. Students should understand that force affects the speed of an object. Less force will mean a slower speed and more force will mean a faster speed.
5. For this activity we used a pushing force. Could we change this investigation to show a pulling force? 
6. Students should understand that a force is a push or a pull so yes, you could use a pulling motion instead.
   

FAQ

What materials did you use?

• Toy Cars*
• Meter Sticks*
• Stopwatches*

The exact materials listed aren’t required—similar items you already have in your classroom, school, or that students can bring from home will often work just fine. If you do need to purchase supplies, know that we tested and returned many products that simply didn’t perform well in the classroom. After much trial and error, we found these materials to be especially valuable to the investigation. The links above simply share the products we used and liked, not a required shopping list.

How do students know what counts as a light, medium, or hard push?

Have students practice this before actually recording the time. For the lightest push they still need to push it hard enough to get it to the end of the meter stick. (That’s actually one of the reasons we really liked the monster trucks that we used. They were friction powered so they had good momentum to make sure it made it to the end of the meter stick.) Have students practice the different pushes so they know what their hand will feel like for each push.

What if I don’t have enough materials for each group?

• If you don’t have enough metersticks, have students measure out the meter on the floor and then use tape to mark the starting and ending location.
• If you don’t have enough stopwatches, have students count out loud instead. As long as they count at the same pace each time it will still give them valid data to understand the concepts in this investigation.
• If you don’t have enough cars, have a small group complete this activity while the rest of the class works on something else like reading a related text. When one group finished, another group starts while the finished group works on the alternative activity.
  

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