Dash Uses the Force...sort of

I was pretty excited today.  I've been thinking up ways to include my Dash and Dot robots into the curriculum, and today it became a reality.

We're learning about force and motion. The particular standard we are working on is SC.5.P.13.2 Investigate and describe that the greater the force applied to it, the greater the change in motion of a given object.

We used Blockly to create a very simple code to send Dash 100 cm.  We attached the bulldozer bar to Dash and placed a small plastic golf ball in front of him.  At first we set him to normal speed, and recorded how far the ball rolled after he stopped.  We repeated this a few times to make sure our data was reliable.  

Once we had some information, students hypothesized what would happen to the ball if we changed Dash's speed.  We slowed him down to "very slow".  After students saw the results we changed Dash's speed to "very fast".

Students were able to draw some conclusions about how the force of Dash effected how far the ball rolled.  

All in all it was a pretty simple investigation that really engaged my students.  I allowed some groups to manipulate other variables and see what happened.

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