Teaching Physics with Hot Wheels

Toyota Tapestry Mini-Grant Project Page

Teaching Physics with Toy Cars!

Thanks to the generosity of Toyota through the Toyota Tapestry grant program, CJH was awarded a $2500 grant in 2006 to support the teaching of physics concepts through the use of toy cars and track (track is from Race Grooves, which is the company that supplied the super long track for the Mythbusters episode "Toy Car vs. Real Car"!! In fact, the track we use came from that episode, cool, huh?) Students will gain skill in conducting inquiry investigations about velocity (instantaneous and average), frame of reference, acceleration, Newton's Laws, forces, and energy (potential and kinetic). The grant supported the purchase of: 200 feet of car track, 80 toy cars, 3 digital scales, 32 Vernier photogates, and several rulers. Supplies that were already available that are also used in this unit include: LabPro boxes, force sensors, and motion sensors.

This project is scheduled to take about 6 weeks from start to finish. This page will include pictures of students at work, samples of student work, student worksheets, and template files for the labs created. The template files were created for Logger Pro and Vernier photogates. Many ideas for these labs were taken from Internet sites, and those sites are referenced within the files. I've also included links to other photogate labs below.

Teachers are welcome to e-mail me to request word versions of the documents below if they'd like editable files. In your e-mail, please let me know which files you would like.

A note on template files: Photogates have all kinds of nuances and secrets to them, and I really had to learn much of this on the fly. There is not a lot of reference material about writing formulas, etc. Though it is similar to Excel, it is different in many ways. Don't hesitate to e-mail me if you're trying to do something and can't figure it out. Also, Vernier has a discussion forum that you can post questions in also.

Student Lab Packets	Number of labs	Time required	Sensors Required	Template files (for Logger Pro)	Links to Photos & Student Work
Intro to Photogates	0	< 1 Day	NA	NA	NA
Velocity	5	~8 Days	One photogate per group for 1-3, and two photogates per group for 4-5	1-Velocity.cmbl 2-Inquiry.cmbl 3-Contest.cmbl 4-Inst vs Avg.cmbl 5-Make a Track.cmbl	Equipment set-up and student inquiry Student Work Samples
Frame of reference	2	~2 Days	Motion detector	6-Frame of Reference.cmbl 7-Match this Motion.cmbl	Equipment set-up and student photos
Acceleration	6	~7 days	Four photogates per group Motion detector	8-Calculating Acceleration 9-Velocity vs. Acceleration 10-Ramp Steepness vs. Acc 11-Calculating g 12-Terminal Velocity 13-Inquiry	Equipment set-up and student inquiry Student Work samples
Newton's Laws	4	~6 days	Two force sensors per group Two photogates per group	16-Newton2Law.cmbl 17-Newton2Law.cmbl 18-Newton2Law.cmbl	Equipment set-up and student photos Student Work samples
Potential and Kinetic Energy	5	~7 days	Two photogates per group		Equipment set-up and student photos Student Work samples

Reckless Driving Tickets (Classroom Management Tool)

Links to other Hot Wheels and Photogate lab sites:

Pasco

How Hot are your Hot Wheels?

Loop the Loop

Hot Wheels Races

Hot Wheels Physics

Tualatin Valley Junior Academy Hot Wheels Lab

Last updated April 8, 2009

Back to Mrs. Aker's Science Class Webpage