North Summit Elementary School 240 S. Beacon Dr. Box 497 Coalville, UT. 84017 1

Maglev Car Racing Lesson Plan Overview: Grades 1- 4 — 300 students

Grades 3 & 4 — 2 60 minute sessions Grades 1 & 2—30 minutes 1. Car Building (60 min) Car Demo Magnet Experimentation Car Building & Testing 2. Art Class Support (45 min) Decorating cars 3. Socrative Quiz: magnetism (30 min) 4. Car Racing (60 min) Weighing Timing Graphing & Calculating

results

5. Grades 1 & 2 Car Racing (30 min) Review of learning points by a 3rd or 4th grade student with 15 minutes of timed car racing.

Overall Outcome To experiment, have fun and develop a love of science, technology, engineering and math. Learning Objectives Core objectives in first grade focus on pushing and pulling to see how

things move. Second grade core objectives call for students to see how things change. Third grade core objectives emphasize the relationship between force applied to an object and resulting motion of the object; and call for students to demonstrate that the greater the force applied to an object (gravity & magnetic field), the greater the change in speed of the object. They’ll also compare how the motion of an object changes with a change in incline. Practice in operations with decimals, fractions, and multiplication and division of two-digit numbers.

Students will: apply scientific processes, communicate scientific ideas effectively, and

understand the nature of science. generate evidence using the processes of scientific investigation i.e. fram-

ing questions, designing investigations, conducting investigations, col-lecting data, drawing conclusions.

explain the basic properties of magnets demonstrate that the North and North poles or the South and South poles

of magnets repel use engineering, design and science skills to build a maglev car build cars that will float upon a magnetic field Use math computation, decimal measures, and graphing skills to show

the results of car racing Students will use: Troubleshooting and design skills: Engineering Design Process, Boston

Museum of Science Teamwork and Leadership skills—following directions, listening,

combining ideas, working together, carrying out role assignments, making

presentations

Resources See Exhibits

North Summit Elementary School 240 S. Beacon Dr. Box 497 Coalville, UT. 84017 2

Maglev Car Building 60 minutes for Grades 3 & 4

Materials Needed (for detail, see Exhibits)

Maglev Track

Working & non-working cars

Boxes for elevating track

Block insulation, pre-cut, 1 per student with extras

Labels for name/class

4 maglev magnets per stu-dent plus extras

Double sided foam tape, cut in 4” strips

2 stop watches

Scale (metric capability)

Sandpaper

Bucket for water (if no sinks)

Duck tape

Containers for finished cars

Pens Magnet demo Pencil, dowel or skewer Magnets Compass

Preparation (for pre-prep detail, see Exhibits)

1. Set up demo tracks on 8’ table with working and non-working cars. 2. Set up blocks, magnets, tape. 3. Have magnet demonstration tower available. 4. Have a compass ready for demonstration. ———— Demonstrate Magnet Tower North and South Poles—predict blue vs. pink, cool vs. warm color Car Design Demonstration (10 minutes) 1. Demonstrate working & non-working car samples. Ask questions: Why is

one better than the other? How are the magnets attached? (Explain posi-tion) Why does this car flip? (Too thin) Why does the car float? Make learning points about magnetism. Discuss how magnetic field pushes car up and from side to side—find magnets that counteract side pushing.

Basic Car Building & Testing (25 minutes) 1. Have students experiment with their block and 4 magnets. Make sure

they put a label with their name and class on the underside. Give time for students to test their cars on the tracks. Circulate & make connections between their discoveries and the principles of magnetism.

2. Coach and problem-solve. Emphasize that problem-solving is a big part of science and engineering.

Debrief (10 minutes) Ask students what they learned—Reinforce learning points (next page) and learning objectives. Science Buddies: Magnetism – 3 minutes of 6 minute video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6feEE716UEk Demonstrate compass.

Lesson made possible by grants from the Park City Community Foundation,

The North Summit PTA, All West Communications,

Crayola, and the Holcim Cement Company.

North Summit Elementary School 240 S. Beacon Dr. Box 497 Coalville, UT. 84017 3

Socrative Review Quiz: Magnetism

Materials Needed Computer Projected computer screen Socrative account iPads for each student Paper copies of the Socrative Quiz in case the computer doesn’t work Learning Points

Some metals are magnetic - Iron, nickel and cobalt, but not all metals are magnetic.

Every magnet has two poles: a north pole and south pole.

Opposite poles attract.

Same poles repel—push away.

Every magnet is surrounded by an invisible magnetic field.

A magnetic field can be detect-ed using a compass.

The earth has its own mag-netic field and the compass will point to the North Pole.

Vocabulary Magnetism Magnetic field North Pole South Pole

Note: Your goal is to reinforce (not test) student’s knowledge of the science concepts taught. MAKE THIS FUN! Preparation (10 minutes) 1. Set up Youtube video. 2. Have charged iPads available for each student. 3. Set up computer to project the screen. 4. Log into Socrative.com. 5. Select maglev quiz. 6. Choose Teacher Paced.

Prepare Kids for Review Quiz (7 minutes) 1. Have students pick up an iPad as they enter the class. 2. Have them sit in front of the screen. 3. Have them turn on the iPad. 4. Have students sign in to the room. 5. Have students enter their first names. 6. Check to see they are all signed in. Show YouTube video before quiz Science Buddies: Magnetism – 3 minutes of 6 minute video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6feEE716UEk Administer Quiz Note: If the video won’t play, review the Learning Points first. 1. Walk through each question by clicking on the number of the question. 2. After each question, show students their responses on the screen. 3. Explain correct answers. Emphasize learning points. 4. Have quiz report sent by email.

North Summit Elementary School 240 S. Beacon Dr. Box 497 Coalville, UT. 84017 4

Art Class: Maglev Car Design 40 minutes

Materials

Cars for each student

Contrasting & complementary paints

Brushes

Water jars

Water

Smocks

Rags/paper towels

Preparation 1. Prepare paint pots with contrasting & complementary colors. 2. Put out brushes, water jars; have students put on smocks. Explain Color & Design Choices Equate the concept of north and south poles in magnetism with warm and cool colors, complementary colors, and contrasting.

Show how geometric designs on both sides of a car illustrate north and south poles

Have students to paint two different colors / geometric designs on each side of their car, as a metaphor for north and south poles.

North Summit Elementary School 240 S. Beacon Dr. Box 497 Coalville, UT. 84017 5

Maglev Car Racing

Materials

Maglev Track (2 @ 8’) on 8’ tables

Books or boxes (for 15 & 30 centimeter rises)

Scale in grams

Two stop watches or cell phones (timers 100th of second)

Recorder sheets (see Exhibits)

Clipboard (2)

Pens/pencils

Flip chart paper

Masking tape if flip chart pa-per is not self-sticking

Colored dot stickers

Preparation 1. Prepare flip chart paper for Race Results (see Exhibits) Set up Race—10 minutes Use the flip chart to explain how the two trials will be run. Explain the data that will be recorded: car weight, time, Distance: 1/4, 1/2,

3/4, Full Explain roles, make sure each team member understands his role.

Starters (2) Timers (2) use stop watches/timers Recorder uses team results sheets (see exhibits)

Run Race: Trial 1. Incline 15 cm. (15 minutes)

Run sample trial for the entire class. Divide class into two teams. Have teams run their own trials. Note: Fourth grade students are learning how to read decimals. Make sure time is called out in 100ths of a second and grams are called out in tenths of a gram. Run Race: Trial 2. Incline 30 cm. (10 minutes) Raise the track to 30 centimeters

Have teams run their own trials. Debrief (5 minutes) Have recorders call out the times for each finishing car-Trial 1 and 2. Have a student put a dot in the corresponding boxes on the flip chart. Have the class count up the number of cars that finished in Trial 1 and deter-mine what fraction or percentage of the cars finished the race; then compare Trial 2 results with Trial 1. Ask the class what invisible forces were at work to affect the results: magnetism and gravity.

Time in seconds

Trial 1—15 cm Trial 2—30 cm

. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Flip Chart: Race Results: Paste colored dot stickers in each field to show distribution

Class Results for Teacher: _____________________________

Trial 1 Trial 2

Name Weight Time Distance Weight Time Distance

http://kelvin.com/maglev-magnets/ http://www.pitsco.com/Maglev_II_Track These two websites offer maglev magnets and maglev track. We bought two 8’ tracks from Pitsco.com. This aluminum track is very high quality. Assembly is required: Clean the track with alcohol and attach magnetic strips with double-sided foam tape (both provided). We bought the maglev magnets from kelvin.com — 5 bags, 250/pkg. The magnets were 1"x 3/4"x3/16" and the magnetic field was very strong . At least half the students had trouble keeping their cars floating in the middle of the track because the magnets would push the car against the track and the car would stop. Stu-dents experimented with positioning the magnets differently on the bottom of their cars and tried to find magnets whose fields would push their cars away from one side of the track or the oth-er. We needed all 1,250 magnets for 150 students. The magnets are re-usable. Children went home with their car, not the mag-nets. The tape needs to be removed from the magnets. 2—38 foot 3/4 inch double sided foam tape from Staples

We bought two 38’ rolls of double-sided foam tape and were glad we did because the tape gets dirty from the magnets and the students’ hands. Re-positioning magnets also results in tape degradation. Students’ used a lot more tape than just one 4” piece per car.

1/2 in. x 4 ft. x 8 ft. Insulation Board

We bought insulation board at Home Depot, where they cut the entire board into 4” strips. We used a chop saw to cut the strips into 2.5” widths so we ended up with 300 pink 2.5” x 4” blocks for the cars. This material did not need to be sanded. Students could use classroom scissors to sculpt them, but they needed to be careful not to cut away the sides, or the magnets would make their car flip and stick to the track.

Stop Watches and Scales Both Pitsco.com and kelvin.com offer stop watches. We bought one from each web-site. The Pitsco.com stop watch was more expensive but was far more reliable and easier for children to use. We bought a scale from Pitsco which we were happy with.

Exhibit

Materials Ordering & Prep