It wasn’t rocket science, but it pretty much forms the basis of it.
Students in Meghan Butler and Tim Olson’s eighth-grade science classes recently put Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion to the test with a hands-on, inquiry based engineering project.
Given a balloon, drinking straw, a pair of paper clips and rubber bands, some masking tape and a bit of string, students were charged with creating a “vehicle” that could travel along a fishing line from one side of the room to the other — about 515 centimeters — while carrying a magnet that weighed in at 92 grams.
“I’m going to put the magnet inside, tie this (balloon) to the string and release the air,” student Aryan Patel explained. His vehicle ran out of air just short of halfway.
But the next fishing line over, Bianca Wiegerink and Maddy Kucharczyk’s happy-faced yellow creation with its magnet taped to the top, made it across in 4.06 seconds.
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