Car Crash Practical lesson:

Inquiry Question: What factors affect the force of a car crash?

Year 8 What is Energy? Science lesson plan NAME: Todd Holman
Science / Level 8 / Science Understanding / Physical sciences/ Force of car
crash

Content description:
Unbalanced forces acting on the object cause change to an objects motion

Elaborations:
. Investigating the effects of applying different forces and motion to
familiar objects

Learning
intentions:
To understand the factors involved in car impacts
To identify factors like speed, force and restraint
Intercultural
Understanding
focus Focuses on a students growing knowledge,
understanding and critical awareness of their surrounding
Setting:
Classroom for introduction
Basketball court for practical
Classroom for question answering and wrap up
Process

Introduction to topic and engage student prior knowledge
Students will be shown a short PowerPoint presentation
Car crash practical experiment
Review
Materials and
Resources:

PPT presentation
Practical materials 2x toy car, 2xramp, 2xbarrier 2xlego-
man, ruler
Handout for practical x 20

Introduction




Introduction of topic give real life scenario to create
understanding of prior knowledge
Slide 1: - Introduction: -
ICT application - 3 - Short clips of TAC advertisement detailing the
importance of wearing a seatbelt in car impact incidents
1. Seat belt commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tywC-
gRXbq0
2. Speeding commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z23CzSONiU
3. Air bags purpose with crash test dummies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8adfGDQ-uRA

Development













Slide 2: - Materials involved in practical
Toy car convertible x20
Ramp x 20
Barrier x20
Lego man x20
Ruler x20
Slide 3: Procedure of practical
1. Place Lego man in car and role toy car down ramp No.1
2. Measure in cm the distance Lego man is from car with tape
measure and record observation, repeat 3 times
3. Perform same exercise again on ramp 2.
4. Measure and record observation, repeat 3 times.

Slide 4: Questions from practical
See practical handout for details

Outcomes:

Students will write answers to questions in their
workbooks with lab partner and on graph data on
graphical paper
Teacher will discuss answers with students
Possible discussion points (write key terms on board
while student answer prac questions) Newton's first law
tells us that an object in motion stays in motion, and an
object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an
outside force.
The first law of motion affects us when we are in a
moving vehicle because, no matter how fast the car is
moving, we will be moving that fast also. Things have the
tendency to keep doing what they are currently doing.

Kinetic energy is energy of motion (movement). The
kinetic energy of an object is the energy it possesses
because of its motion.
The speed of an object rate of change of its position (time
taken to move from one point to another)

Seatbelts and airbags can help protect people from this
danger. Seatbelts safely provide an outside force that can
stop or slow down your body when the car stops or slows
down. Airbags work by increasing the time of impact and
decreasing the force of impact thus stopping you from
getting hurt and being killed.


Activities:

Car crash practical

Check
Understanding:
Answer practical questions (summative assessment
rubrics below) and discussion (formative assessment)
Class discussion (formative assessment)

Closure & Review:

Key inquiry words: Force, motion, speed, and restraint to
stop motion. Wrap-up experiment and results and tie into
learning outcomes


Lesson timing: Introduction: 8 minutes
Activity: 12 minutes
Questions: 20 minutes
Discussion/review: 8 minutes

Todds Car Crash Practical handout
Name:

Materials per pair:
Toy car convertible
1x steep ramp
1x sight incline ramp
Lego man
Ruler

Procedure of practical:
1. Place Lego man in car and role toy car down ramp No.1
2. Measure (in cm) the distance Lego man travelled from impact barrier with
ruler and record the distance, repeat 3 times and fill in results in table below.
3. Perform the same exercise again on ramp 2 and measure distance, repeat 3
times

Record distance Lego man traveled from impact barrier in table:

First ramp (distance traveled cm) Second ramp (distance traveled cm)
1
st
trial: 1
st
trial:
2
nd
trial: 2
nd
trial:
3
rd
trial: 3
rd
trial:
4
th
trial: 4
th
trial:
5th trial: 5th trial:
Table 1: Distance Lego man traveled from impact barrier


Car Crash Practical Questions:

1. What happened to the passenger in the first trial? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________

2. What was the average, mean and medium distance the passenger travel for both
ramps? (Hint: to calculate this, add all five measurements together than divide by
three)
1st ramp average: ____________________________________
2nd ramp average: _________________________________

3. Did the height of the ramp make a difference in how far the passenger traveled?
How? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________
4. How would a seat belt help in preventing injury? Explain it.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________
5. Using your results construct two bar graphs on graph paper provided.