Elastic Racers

A box of construction materials, a couple of elastic bands, and limited time – whose vehicle will go the furthest? Energy, Forces, Friction, Fun!

Elastic Racers is one of our most popular workshops. We investigate how to balance forces,energy, friction and structure to win races.
Children work in pairs. They collaborate and build, test and improve their vehicles. They compete for a place in the Grand Prix Final.
Race tactics now count as the team need to put in their best performance under pressure.
Vehicles regularly travel up to 10 metres and that’s why a Hall is an ideal venue.

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Workshop duration

1:30

Year(s)

KS2

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Our aim is to inspire the young about science - and this email from Phoebe who came to our Hands on Science after school club shows we make a lasting impression. 7 years after leaving us to go onto secondary school, Phoebe emailed us looking for some suggestions for her up coming ISA. Well, once you have been a Hands on Scientist, you will always a member of our team. So we were delighted to help. In keeping with our philosophy, we did not give Phoebe the answer - instead we emailed some thought provoking ideas for her to follow up. Here is Phoebe's reply "Thank you for your help! I will definitely research F1 cars and spoilers, I am sure I can use the website you gave me as a source. This has helped me very much. I also expect you will be pleased to know I am thinking of taking A-level physics, potentially going on to study nuclear physics. I have fallen both in and out of love with science, so I would like to thank you and everybody else at Hands on Science for encouraging my love of chemistry and physics!" Thank you once again, Phoebe This blew our socks off - it is exactly why we are so committed to what we do - Science Matters.

Phoebe Turner. Junior Scientist
"The students particularly liked experimenting with resistance and putting the theory into practice in the fun Elastic Racers Workshop"

a very pleased teacher

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