Wind Powered Cars

Happy St. Patrick’s Day my lovely readers! 

I took a small blogging hiatus while I was finishing up my most recent practicum. Then last week was March Break. I took a trip back home to Small Town Ontario to find a new apartment for May, when my program is finished here in The City. I was successful! I found an apartment in Even Smaller, Small Town Ontario which is not too far from the original Small Town Ontario. 

Anyways, while on practicum with my adorable grade 1’s, I had the opportunity to teach the measurement unit in math and the energy unit in science. It was particularly awesome because I adore math and science, and this was my first chance getting to teach either of them. 

As a culminating activity, I decided to join the best of both worlds, and infuse a little craftiness, to make these bad boys with the kids: 

Wind powered cards! 

First we talked about how cars normally get energy, then we brainstormed other types of energy cars can use. That was interesting. I brought up the idea of a coffee powered car (which I saw a couple years ago on the Discovery Channel), and the kids were off to the races with ideas of their own. 

Finally, I presented my little wind powered car. We talked about how it worked, the parts it needed to work, and potential downfalls of a real-life wind powered car. 

Then we built our cars! I got directions for this car from a book my associate teacher had. I think it’s a standard curricular resource here in Ontario. This is what the cover of the book looked like: 

There were step-by-step instructions, but essentially you cut the base and wheels out of cardboard (I cut out all of these parts and pre-poked the appropriate holes into them because my grade 1’s wouldn’t have been great at this), attach four clothespins to the bottom of the base, thread wooden skewers through the clothespins so that you have axels, and slide the wheels onto the skewers. 

So far so good. For the sail, thread the pointy side of the skewer through the paper, and slide the paper all the way to the other end of the skewer. Dip the pointy end of the skewer in glue, and poke it into the base like a mast. Make sure the glue on the mast skewer dries thoroughly before using the car, or you’re going to have some pretty disappointed kids. Building this car took a full 100 minute block of class time, plus drying time. It could have taken a lot longer, but I limited their decorating time quite a bit. 

The next day we experimented with our cars. First we brainstormed different sources of wind we could use to propel the cars. I introduced the sources of wind we would be using: our mouths, paper fans, an electric fan, and a hair drier. The goal was to use each source of wind, measure the distance the car travelled, and compare the results. It was a huge success! Here’s the worksheet I made up for this activity: 

The kids didn’t really understand the predictions section. My guess is that they have not had a lot of experience with predicting yet. If I were to do this experiment again, I would focus a lot more time and energy on making real, reasonable predictions. The experiment and worksheet took up another full 100 minute block of class time, then I gathered their worksheets for assessment, and they brought their cars home. 

The next day, some of them told me about other wind sources they found at home, and how it affected the distance travelled by the car. To me, there is nothing more rewarding as a teacher than when a student continues class work at home on his or her own accord. That’s the true mark of a fun lesson.