My Students

Because of time constraints many teachers are not able to explore physics with hands on projects in the regular classroom.

I teach seventh and eighth gifted education students in a public junior high school in Mississippi.

These students love to learn and enjoy being challenged. I find many of them are kinesthetic learners and love being able to move around the room and participate in hands on projects.

My Project

The resources I need include balsa wood, glue sticks and a mitre saw so that students will be able to construct their cars for the competition. These resources will be used for an automotive engineering challenge where students will apply the concepts of force, time, momentum and impulse to a real world situation. The students will select teams of at least two students, then acquire materials needed to construct the car by incorporating a position for the egg (plastic in trial runs. The egg must be able to be removed from the car after each trial run. The design should focus on a cage that will keep the raw eggs safe by decreasing the force felt by the egg by increasing the stopping time of the car.

This program teaches students the importance of wearing a seatbelt because motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury and death for ages 3-33 years.

Children ages 12 and under who are seated in the back seat of a passenger vehicle are 36% less likely to die in a crash than a front seat passenger. There is a 55% chance of surviving a crash if a seatbelt is worn. Creating this hands on project gives them the real-world experience they need to see the importance of wearing a seat belt.