Program Description: The Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry has designed engaging learning experiences based in hands-on “play” and experimentation. These modules are developed to bring to your classroom. Older students typically complete the program at school; younger students may also incorporate a visit to the Museum as part of the Experience.

Sample Experience: 

World of Motion

Explore the relationship of friction, mass, and distance by building and racing cars on different track surfaces. Integrating science and math, students will hypothesize the correlation between their car design on specific surfaces and its relationship to speed and mass.

Objectives include:

• Recognizing different forces and directions of motion acting upon the test cars
• Writing a detailed description explaining ways to change the effect that friction has on the motion of objects: list examples (grade level specific –may include F= M x A or Speed).

 Students alter the mass of their groups’ car to increase acceleration on 3 different friction surfaces.  Discussion on Newton’s second law of motion (depending on grade level): Force (F) = mass (m) X acceleration (a).  As the force acting on an object increases, the acceleration increases.  As the mass of the object increases, the acceleration of the object decreases.