The NEED for SPEED App is designed to support hands-on learning about speed (middle school), velocity and acceleration (high school), and apply knowledge of the physics of energy and design principles (e.g. potential vs kinetic energy, friction, aerodynamics), through the process of building and racing a model car.
The NEED for SPEED App consists of 4 data capture protocols:
* Design Shop: Car. Students document their ideas and progress as they design and test a model car.
* Design Shop: Track. Students document their ideas and progress as they design and test a race track
* Race Day: Students time their car and use their data to calculate speed and average speed. More advanced students can relate their data to velocity.
* Car Acceleration: Students measure the distance their car travels in a defined amount of time and use their data to explore and calculate acceleration.
You can find lesson plans to support design and build of model cars and track, data collection and analysis in the Aecern Community Lesson Plan library. For more information visit our website: aecern.org.