Newton’s Laws of Motion – Balloon Car Project STEM Challenge

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Do you want to bring Newton’s Laws of Motion to life with a hands-on STEM activity that will challenge your students? Are you looking for engaging ways to assess your student’s knowledge of forces and motion? The balloon car project STEM challenge is an excellent way for your students to apply Newton’s Laws of Motion in the classroom and this resource is packed full of everything you need to make the learning experience fun and valuable including…

• Review and Application Worksheets
• Teacher Presentation for review and Balloon Car Project procedures (PPT and Google Slides)
• Data Collection Worksheets
• Data Analysis Worksheets
• Graphic Organizer and Essay Outline
• Teacher Tips Pages
• Race Day Awards

Students begin with a review of Newton’s 3 laws of motion, using the Review and Application worksheets. Each worksheet is dedicated to one of Newton’s laws and specifically guides students through its application to the balloon car project.

The teacher presentation (available in PowerPoint and Google Slides) will also walk your students through a review of the three laws of motion. Content on the slides is editable so you can customize them to suit the needs of your classroom.

The teacher presentation also includes instructions and guidelines for the balloon car project STEM challenge. You can edit the instructions and guidelines direction on the slides to make them work for your students.

Now it’s time to build! Students spend several days constructing and adjusting their cars, using collaboration and critical thinking skills. As they do this, they will use the Balloon Car Project Worksheets to collect data about their cars and their classmate’s cars. On race day, you can use the included Balloon Car Project Awards to give students acknowledges such as fastest car.

Finally, it’s time to analyze the data. Students will use the Data Collection Sheets and Class Data Analysis Graph to determine if there is a correlation between mass and speed. They can also write about their data and experience using the included graphic organizer and essay outline (this is a great tool if you want to partner with an ELA teacher!)

Also included are the Teacher Tip Pages, providing you with lots of support, tips, and ideas, so that you can easily implement this hands-on STEM challenge into your science classroom!

Be sure to check the PDF and video previews to see all that’s included and how you can use it in your classroom as you prepare your students to apply their knowledge of Newton’s Laws of Motion!

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