Over the past month, the first graders have been exploring how the forces of gravity, push/pull, and friction affect how they play on playground equipment at school. Measurement data, questions, and observations were recorded in a science journal. As a final project, students designed and created a model of a piece of playground equipment, and explained the forces employed when using it.
Here are picture of their final projects along with their explanations! I am so impressed with their creativity and their knowledge of forces and motion!!
Caitlynn: It’s
like the merry-go-round outside. You pull
it to make it move.
Daegan: It’s a
bouncy house. The bottom ribbon makes you bounce. It is kind of like a teeter-
totter because when you bounce on the edges it goes down, and up, up-down. It’s
gravity and friction, I think,
because it is made out of plastic so there’s not a lot of friction and gravity pulls
you down.
Eli: These are
monkey bars. You grab to hold them and you will hang there and then grab to the
next one until you’re to the end. You grab on and pull your body.
Erika: I built a
teeter-totter. I think its gravity, because gravity pulls you down. You
wouldn’t go anywhere if it was a balanced
force.
Gracie B.: It’s a
trampoline with a lock on it. You have to go under it because this is like a
gate. These are beds so you can sleep outside. There is a see-saw part. You go
up and down when it isn’t a balanced
force.
Gracie G: This is
a kind of teeter totter. You push
your legs down and up or else gravity
pulls you down. If someone gets on the other side gravity pulls them down so you go up.
Grifin: I made a
bouncy house. You just bounce in it. The walls shoot up when you run into them!
Gravity pulls you down to the
ground, so you have to push with
your feet. The red line shows the danger zone!
Haydon: This is a climber! You walk on this platform, you climb up there,
and if you want you can jump on the trampoline and if you really want to go on
the slides, you can go on the slides. This kind of slide has almost no friction because it is made out of ice
so you go really fast.
Jewels: This is a
teeter-totter for lots of people. You go up when you push up, and the force of
gravity pulls you down. When you push
yourself up you go up and then you come down. It is fun. Ten people can go on
it at once.
Jordan: This is a
really big bouncy house. You’re on the grass and you have to jump up to get
into the bouncy house and then you can jump as high as you want to. When you
jump in the air, gravity will pull
you down but it won’t hurt because it’s bouncy.
Kaydence: I made
a merry-go-round. I know it looks weird. You push it and it goes around and around.
Landen: This is a monkey bar. You climb this ladder and
then this one and and this one, and then you climb onto this one, and then you
grab onto this rope and you can go across the monkey bars, and you can also
climb across on these cotton balls. You have to be careful when you’re up there
because gravity might pull you down
and you could get hurt.
Lauren: This is
called a horsey-ride. You have to get on it right here, and then you get to
climb over and then you get to climb on this and this, like a koala, climbing
backwards. Then you get to swing on here. You need somebody to push it, and then it will go for a
while. You pull back on it to make
it stop.
Lilly: I made a
slide. If you get a push you go
faster. If you wear snowpants you go really fast because there is less friction.
Makayla: This is
a see-saw. You push up and down on
your feet. When I go up, the other person goes down. Then gravity pulls me down.
Mason: I got my
teeter-totter done! When the other person gets on, he has to pull it down on
his side, because it’s an unbalanced
force. The force pulls them
down- the force of gravity.
Selena: A
playhouse! You can put your toys in there and stuff. These are windows on top.
You can bounce in it and sit in it. There is ice in the bottom. It is slippery
because of the no friction.
(Not pictured)
Rowan: These are
monkey bars. You hold on these and jump, and then hold on to this, and jump,
and then you slide down. Gravity is
pulling you down so you have to hold on really tight.
