Week #2 BLOG for Exploring the Physical World

This week we were to select a specific question and design a guided inquiry activity based on that question. 
The question I chose was: How do different surfaces affect the momentum of marbles?

 Here is my experiment or guided inquiry design plan:

Using a paper towel tube, place a marble inside above the desired surface. Allow marble to coast down the tube onto the surface and observe what happens to the momentum of the marble once it comes in contact with the surface. Repeat twice on each surface to prevent error.

Materials Used:

Marbles (2) one large red, one smaller blue

Different Surfaces

1-wood dinning room table

2- textbook cover

3-sidewalk (concrete)

4-Grass

Paper Towel Tube

I feel overall the experiment played out well and based on my previous experience with inquiry-based instruction there is not a specific element I would change in this activity. The results were very interesting and it was a fun and easy activity that works for a variety of academic abilities. In fact, my 5yr and 2yr old sons helped me conduct this experiement. The marbles gained the most momentum and speed on the smoother surfaces: dinning room table and textbook cover. There was less momentum and more friction present with the rougher surfaces used: sidewalk (concrete) and grass.  The paper towel tube worked well to drop the marbles onto the desired surface. In the future to make it more engaging, I may have students pick from a variety of materials instead of just using marbles and the surfaces I selected.

I would like students to use this experiement to learn about force and motion and how it is present in everyday life. I think this would be a great introduction activity to teaching Newton's Laws of Motion.   This was fun and engaging for my 5 yr and 2yr old so hopefully it would be fun and engaging for my middle school students as well.