skip entire header

Resources for Grades K-2:

Vroom! Vroom! What Makes Cars Go?

Module Description Students explore gravity, friction, and energy using objects and model cars. They investigate and define the concepts of motion, force, and energy, using simple hands-on activities with vehicles as well as online interactives and videos. At the end of the module, students apply the knowledge they have acquired about force, motion, energy and friction to design a functioning model car. Then, students share the cars with their classmates in a model car show.
Module Project Students develop a model and/or diagram of a car and explain what causes the car to move, ways to keep it moving, and what makes it speed up or slow down.
Objectives
  • Explain what causes a vehicle to move
    and keep moving.
  • Name things that can cause a vehicle to speed up or slow down.
  • Design a model car.

Red Toolbox and Tires

Lesson Plans

1: How Things Move: Roll, Slide, and Bounce Students begin thinking about engineering a vehicle by taking a closer look at movement through exploring and comparing different ways that things move.

2: Motion and Force: Pushes and Pulls Students investigate forces, such as pushes and pulls, to find out what is needed to cause the motion of an object and, ultimately, a vehicle.

3: The Force of Gravity Using ramps and model cars, students discover how gravity acts as a force that pulls objects toward the Earth and what its effect is on vehicles.

4: What Makes Things Stop? Students continue to use model cars to explore how rough and smooth surfaces and friction affect motion. Students apply their thinking to determine the factors that reduce vehicle friction.

5: Keep it Moving! Students begin to test out ideas for making their own vehicles. They will explore with wheels and axles and consider solutions to make them move more smoothly.

6: Creating Model Cars Students use the engineering design process to apply their knowledge from the previous five lessons to design a working model car.

7: Model Car Show Students use the designs that they created in the previous lesson to build their cars. Afterward, they have a car show to allow their classmates to give positive feedback.

Supplemental Lesson Plans

See below for additional STEM-related exercises and lessons to extend topics for students.

Discovering Math: Beginning Measurement Demonstrate the basic measures of length, width, height, weight, and temperature by measuring objects and recording the information.

Math Investigations I Brainstorm ways that math is used in daily life.

Math Investigations II Practice measuring the length and width of objects and work with bar graphs.

Student Resources

Keep your class engaged in this module's topics with tools set aside just for them.

Students can fuel up on even more action with topic-related videos, interactives, animations, and puzzles in the Elementary section.

Go!