Investigating magnetism and forces - Fifth and Sixth Class

Aim: The aim of our experiment was to make a small car and get it to move using magnets.

Materials used: card, car template, straws, cocktail sticks, sellotape, blu tac, corks, wooden wheels, magnets

Method:
Step 1: we cut out the template of a simple car on black card, and folded the edges so that it looked like a matchbox
Step 2: we cut two pieces of straw so that they would fit the width of the car and act almost as axles. We then taped these straw to the underside of the car, front and back
Step 3: we put the cocktail sticks through the straws, and attached the wheels to each side. Fifth class used corks as wheels, and sixth class used wooden wheels and blu tac to hold the wheels in place
Step 4: put a magnet inside the car and use the worksheet to record our answers.

Recording: we used a worksheet with two parts. The first one measured how far close the magnet in our hand had to be in order for it to make the car start moving towards it. The second part measured how far the car would travel if we pushed it from behind with our magnet (repelling force)

Problem solving: we encountered problems with our wheels, which meant that the car didn't always run smoothly. Sometimes the blu tac was stuck to the axle, which meant the wheel wouldn't move. Other times the wheels were too close to the body of the car, meaning the car was acting as a brake on the wheel. Finally, if the cocktail stick wasn't stuck straight into the cork, and instead went in at an angle, the wheels would not rotate smoothly.

Maths: finally we used the results from both experiments to create a graph, and see whether there was any benefit to having wooden over cork wheels.