Unit Plan: Australia

Unit plan: Mouse Trap Cars Unit Overview...... 1 Curriculum – Framing Questions...... 1 Teaching and Learning Strategies...... 2 Professional Learning...... 2 Key Learning/Subject Areas...... 2 VELS...... 2 Activities...... 3 Engage...... 3 Explore...... 4 Explain...... 4 Interactives :...... 4 How does the mouse trap car work?...... 5 Elaborate and Experiment:...... 5 Challenge...... 5 Experiment & Design...... 5 Evaluate:...... 6

Unit Overview

Unit Plan Title: Mouse Trap Car

Year Levels Years 5 – 9 Key Concepts Simple Machines, Forces

Curriculum – Framing Questions

Essential Question - How do machines use forces and energy to work?

Unit Questions - How do mouse trap cars work? - How is energy stored and how does it move from one object to another? - What are the similarities and differences between a mouse trap car and a real car? - How do the forces within the car make it move? - How does changing the design of the car affect the forces?

Content Questions - What is a Force? - What is Energy? - How can we design things to make them do what we want?

Unit Summary The students build a mouse trap car and then use the car and the scientific method to find out how simple machines work inside a more complex machine.

Unit Plan: Mouse trap Cars Page 1 Teaching and Learning Strategies

- Hands-on learning by doing. - Use of science to experiment and discovery - Use of computer activities such as FUSE based interactives

Professional Learning

- Review common misconceptions about force, energy and mechanics. Examples: http://homepage.mac.com/vtalsma/syllabi/2943/handouts/misconcept.html#force

Key Learning/Subject Areas

Physical, Personal and Social Learning Interpersonal Development Building social relationships Working in teams

Personal Learning The individual learner Managing personal learning Discipline Based Learning Science Physics – Forces and Energy English Reading and Comprehension Mathematics Graphs, Units/ Unit conversions, Technology Information Technology

Interdisciplinary Learning Design, Creativity and Technology - design of mouse trap car - Experiment design

Strand Domains Dimensions Key elements of standards

Interpersonal Working in …work effectively in different Development teams teams and

Unit Plan: Mouse trap Cars Page 2 take on a variety of roles… …work cooperatively to allocate tasks and develop timelines. …accept responsibility for their role and tasks.

Physical, Personal …describe task progress and Personal and Learning achievements… Social Learning Managing …develop and implement personal plans to learning complete short-term and long- term tasks within timeframes. …develop individual learning preferences…

Discipline-based Science Science …apply the terms Learning knowledge and relationships, models understanding and systems appropriately as ways of representing complex structures. …explain how the Earth and the Moon operate as a simple system within the larger solar system. Listening, viewing and responding …ask clarifying questions about ideas and information they listen to and view.

Interdisciplinary Communication … summarise and organise Learning Presenting ideas and information logically and clearly in a range of presentations. …identify the features of an effective presentation and adapt elements of their own presentations to reflect them.

Activities

These activities are ordered as per the e5 instructional model.

Engage - Show students the example mouse trap car and ask them to guess what each part of the car is for using photographs of the different parts – record the guesses for further use and use these guesses as formative assessment (what do the students already know). Use “mouse trap car outline” worksheet.

Unit Plan: Mouse trap Cars Page 3 - Demonstrate the mouse trap car and measure the time taken to travel 3m and the total distance travelled. You may like to do several test runs and take an average time and average distance. Use a whiteboard marker to write the results on the laminated sheet provided. Give students a challenge of beating those results by the end of the unit.

- Cranky the wind-up toy: Use Cranky to demonstrate how energy is stored in a spring, just like it is stored in a mouse trap spring. Students will be able to see the spring getting smaller as it is wound tighter.

Explore - Students construct their first mouse trap car by following the visual instructions in the folder or on the power point demonstration included on the CD. This will take two or three sessions depending mainly on the fine motor skills of the students (particularly younger students). Group students into mixed ability groups of four students.

- Group rolls: Badges included in unit plan kit. o Master Mechanic – Responsible for helping other students fix their cars. Only if the master mechanic can’t fix the car can the student and the master mechanic take the car to the teacher for help. o Design Manager – Responsible for making sure the instructions are followed out. For example, if someone didn’t hear or didn’t understand an instruction they must first ask the master designer before they go to the teacher for help. o Team Leader– Makes sure everyone is performing their rolls correctly and keeps students on task. o Spare-parts Manager– Responsible for making sure everyone has the correct materials.

- Trouble-shoot the problems the students have with the car. Some of the most common problems are: o String getting tangled, make sure the string is wound around the rubber and doesn’t get caught behind the staple. Bend staple in such a way as it is unlikely to catch the string. Some students may have to take their axel apart and put on a longer piece of rubber. o Wheels crooked, making the car turn. Use tape to straighten them. Keep the axels on the edge of the base rather than underneath the base. o Wheels spin but the car isn’t going anywhere – increase traction using balloons or rubber bands as tyres. o Students have trouble getting wool into front wheels. Use the florists’ wire as a “needle threader”. Put both ends of the florists’ wire into the hole in the wheel and put wool into the loop. Pull wool through the centre of the wheel while holding onto one end. o If the wheel is still not holding tightly to the axel put a drop of superglue on the wool at the centre of the wheel.

Explain

Interactives : Use the following interactives to teach students about the names and functions of the various simple machines. - Fuse Reference: HNW475 http://www.msichicago.org/online-science/simple- machines/activities/simple-machines-1/ - Chicago Science Museum Students use different kinds of simple machines for different jobs. - Fuse Reference: TXTF8K http://www.edheads.org/activities/simple-machines/index.htm - Ed-heads, Simple Machines. Students work though a series of rooms in the house and the tool-shed. Students learn names of the simple machines. - Fuse Reference: 8W4BBB http://www.edheads.org/activities/odd_machine/index.htm - Ed-heads, the complex machine. Students are asked a series of questions as the complex machine gets to work. Students should already have been introduced to the names of the simple machines and different forces before using this interactive. - The following interactive teach students about friction

Unit Plan: Mouse trap Cars Page 4 - Fuse Reference: 9CPCBK (within fuse) - Wild Ride: Get a grip. Students investigate friction for different tires and surfaces (Also see the Assessment L7969– and teacher guide JEC43Y)

How does the mouse trap car work? Explain each of the parts of the mouse trap car and allow the students to match the area of the car with its purpose.  The mouse-trap spring stores energy as it is wound up  Once you let the spring go, the mouse trap bail (the part shaped like a D) moves from the front of the car to the back. Lever simple machine  The leaver (ours is made from a skewer) pulls the string.  The fulcrum is the part of the leaver that is still while the rest of the lever rotates around it. In this case the fulcrum is at the base of the mouse trap bail.  The applied force is the force the mouse trap applies to the lever. The applied force is spread out along the bail, where it is attached to the skewer.  The string pulls on the front axle, and the front axle will spin as the string is unwound. Wheel and axel simple machine  The string pulling on the front axle is a wheel and axel machine. The force is applied by the string on the outside of the rubber tubing.  The thicker the rubber tubing is, the more string is used in each turn of the axel.  The font wheels (drive wheels) turn the small movement of the axel into a larger movement of the wheels. They act as a wheel and axel machine.  The back wheels spin freely to reduce friction. The back wheels don’t act as a wheel and axel machine because they are not drive wheels – nothing is pushing the middle of the wheel.

Demonstrations / Directed experiments  Ask a student to demonstrate the swing of a cricket bat/ Golf club / tennis racket etc. o Each of these are third class leavers increase the distance, but you have to put in a bigger force at the centre while the ball is hit with a smaller force at the other end.  Lever and force activity (worksheet on CD) o Use Blu-Tac, 30cm rulers and weights to investigate levers. Worksheet  Simple Machines in the Mousetrap car (on CD)

Elaborate and Experiment:

Challenge - Students should test their car by winding it up and making it run over a smooth, hard surface. Record the time it takes to go 3m and measure the total distance it can travel.

- Set the students the challenge of modifying their cars to make it go either faster or further than Discovery’s car (not both, generally there is a trade off between force and distance for each of the simple machines that make up the car).

Experiment & Design - The laminated worksheets “Stayer the Rally car” and “Speedie the Drag Racer” will guide students though the design of a long distance or a fast car. - The laminated sheets “Own Mousetrap” give some hints for materials and design

Unit Plan: Mouse trap Cars Page 5 Evaluate: - Group and self evaluation – students should evaluate how well everyone in their group worked while making the mouse trap cars. - A base for a rubric to assess the mouse trap car against VELS Progression Points is included on the CD Materials and resources

Ask students to bring the following to school:- Milk bottle lids CD’s Wire coat-hangers (not plastic coated)

Tools Pliers Hammer Consumables Please replace the parts you use. Item Details for purchase Cost Car Kit- including wheels, axels, Prof Bunsen Science $30 for 10 kits plus postage and base www.profbunsen.com.au Ph 03 5241 9756 Mouse Traps Hardware store / Mixed Business / Approx. $1 per mousetrap $2 Shop Wool Any wool / thick synthetic Some Negligible wool does not work well as it disintegrates as you push it through the wheel Woven Fishing Line Needs to be flexible and able to be Approx $9 per roll turned on itself. Fishing Shops / BigW / etc Electrical Tape Any electrical tape Approx $2 per roll Silver Tape Use guttering tape from hardware Approx $7 per roll store Rivets Buy different size rivets to fit the Approx $2 per packet different size axels and hit the ‘nail’ part out with a hammer.

Other ideas for materials: Suggest that students find these materials themselves Car Part Material used in basic kit Other potential materials Base Corrugated plastic from Prof  Similar corrugated plastic from Bunsen kit hardware stores (sold in large sheets at around $8 per sheet)  Balsa wood  Bamboo Skewers  No base – many cars only use the mouse trap surface for the base Axle From Prof Bunsen Kit  Coat-hanger wire with the  2nd hand bicycle wheel spokes (new ones

Unit Plan: Mouse trap Cars Page 6 are expensive!)  Skewars Wheels From Prof Bunsen Kit  CDs : You will also need some craft foam or rubber to connect wheel to the front axle and a spacer for the back axle.  Record : Remind students that the base will need re-designing for wheels this large Lever Arm Thick Skewer – Thin skewers  Balsa wood break easily. Try a few  Brass tubing from plumbing supplies different brands from the supermarket.

Printed materials Doc Fizzix Mousetrap Racers: The Complete Builders Manual, Alden J. Balmer, Fox Chapel Publishing 2008 Worksheets included on CD – Lever Experiment - How does a mousetrap car work? - Simple machines in your mousetrap car Internet resources FUSE and web Resources (log in from the teacher page) - TXTF8K http://www.edheads.org/activities/simple-machines/index.htm Ed-heads, Simple Machines. Students work though a series of rooms in the house and the tool-shed. Students learn names of the simple machines.

- 8W4BBB http://www.edheads.org/activities/odd_machine/index.htm Ed-heads, the complex machine. Students are asked a series of questions as the complex machine gets to work. Students should already have been introduced to the names of the simple machines and different forces before using this interactive.

- Search on YouTube.com and Teachertube.com for “mouse trap car” to see lots of examples of student’s cars.

Accommodations for Differential Learning

Students with special needs - Students with fine motor skills difficulties will need an aid to assist with the construction of the mouse trap car. - - Students with conceptual difficulties with science may not be able to design their own experiment but should complete a more structured experiment, measuring one variable. - - Students with language difficulties may need to move slower than the rest of the class to construct their car. Use the instructions in the folder to allow some students to construct their car at a slower pace. English as a Second Language (ESL) student - Make sure the photographs are easily viewable on the ‘How to make a mousetrap car’ presentation. - Make or ask students to make picture / word posters for each of the key words from this unit plan. -

Unit Plan: Mouse trap Cars Page 7 Gifted Students - The book “Doc Fizzix Mousetrap Racers : The Complete Builder’s Manual” continues to a much higher level than most classes could tackle. It delves deeper into the physics as well as containing ideas for more complex projects. - Gifted students should continue to work on both their strengths and weaknesses, for example students who are working far ahead in conceptual science but are not so far ahead in organisational or communication skills could plan a mouse trap racer competition.

Student Assessment

- A rubric based around VELS Key words

Force, Energy, Friction, Lever, Wheel, Axle, Spring, Potential Energy, Kinetic Energy, Bale (the part of the mousetrap attached to the spring)

Unit Plan: Mouse trap Cars Page 8