OBJECTIVE: By the end of today’s lesson, you will be able to…

5th Grade Science Name:___________________________

Unit: Physics Date:____________________________

Speed Lab Homeroom:______________________

SWBAT conduct an investigation to determine how the height of a ramp

affects an object’s speed.

Do Now

1. You want to run to your best friend’s house, which is located 240 m down the
block. You can run at 8 m/s. How long will it take you to get there?

2. Ms. Whitfield and Ms. Watkin are both driving from the school to Dave’s Market. It takes Ms.
Whitfield six minutes to arrive. It takes Ms. Watkin ten minutes. Who was traveling at a faster
speed? How do you know?

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 Speed Investigation
Investigation Question: How does the mass of a marble affect
its speed?

Hypothesis (1 pt): If we roll a heavy marble and a light marble,

then
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Variables (4 pts):

Independent: __________________________________________________

Dependent: ___________________________________________________

Two Constants: ________________________________________________

Materials:

 Marble  Stopwatch

 Ruler  Two Pieces of Tape

Jobs:

 Timer: Starts and stops the stopwatch to determine how long

it

takes for the marble to travel one yard

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 Marble Keeper: Applies forces to the marbles at the

beginning of each trial

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  Marble Catcher: Stops the marble after it crosses the finish
line and returns it to the Marble Keeper

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Procedure:

1. Place your first piece of tape to create a starting line.

2. Place your second piece of tape one yard from the first to create a finish
line.

3. The Marble Keeper places the light marble at the finish line. The Marble
Keeper gently pulls back the end of the ruler and releases it to hit the
marble. It may take a couple of tries to figure out how much force is
necessary to get the marble to the finish line.

4. The Timer starts the stopwatch when the marble is released and stops it
when the marble crosses the finish line.

5. All group members record the marble’s time for trial 1 rounded to the
nearest tenth of a second.

6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for trials 2 and 3. The Marble Keeper must try to
use the same amount of force each time.

7. Repeat steps 3 through 5 to complete three trials for your heavy marble.
The Marble Keeper should still be using the same amount of force that he
or she used for the light marble.

Data Collection (3pts):

Trial Distance Time

Light Marble Trial 1 1 yard
Light Marble Trial 2 1 yard
Light Marble Trial 3 1 yard
Heavy Marble Trial 1 1 yard
 Heavy Marble Trial 2 1 yard
Heavy Marble Trial 3 1 yard

Bar Graph (3 pts):

3.0
2.9
2.8 Trial Number
2.7
2.6
2.4
2.3
2.2
2.1
2
1.9
1.8
1.7
1.6
1.5
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.1
1

LMT 1 LMT 2 LMT 3 HM T 1 HMT 2 HMT 3

Data Analysis:

1. During which trial did your marble move the fastest? How do
you know? (2 pts)

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2. In general, did the light marble or the heavy marble roll

more quickly? Use evidence from your data table to support
your answer. (2 pts)

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3. What forces were acting on your marble during this

investigation? (2 pts)

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Conclusion (4 pts):

My hypothesis was __________________________. The data showed

that ______________________________________________________________

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This happened because __________________________________________

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My new question is

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Lab Reflection:

1. I feel that I did my part and worked well with my group

members (2 pts).

1 2 3 4
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Agree

Explain your answer.

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2. I feel that my group members completed their fair share of the work
(2 pts).

1 2 3 4
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Agree

Explain your answer.

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1. What did you enjoy about this investigation? (1 pt)

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2. What would you change about this investigation if you could do

it again? (1 pt)

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3. Describe at least one thing you learned by completing this lab.

(1 pt)

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Total Score: ________/ 28 pts