My heavenly father, the creator of the universe, is the greatest engineer there ever has been.  He knows it all.  I believe he enjoys it when we take time to ask for his help, and when we apply ourselves to learn about Him, and learn about science and engineering and how he engineered the universe to work.



While preparing the program and lesson for today, I felt inspired to help the kids learn and practice math skills, geography skills, and engineering skills while working together in teams. Teams are great because working together in teams teaches cooperation, negotiation, conflict resolution, and sharing responsibilities to reach a specific goal. 



Today we were off to the races with a fun building competition. If you have ever seen the Disney movies Cars and Cars 2, then you have a kid’s idea of racing cars, and animated racing fun in different countries.

In Cars 1, its all about racing in the USA, and in Cars 2, Lightning McQueen and his friends travel around the world for international competitions.  In Cars 2 they race in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Italy.  While the race is going on, one of McQueens’ friends, Matter, gets accidentally caught up in a spy operation to take down a gang that wants to rule the world by controlling the fuel.  It is a great movie with lots of thrills and suspense, and my kids love watching it again and again.  A few months ago, we hosted a movie party in our home and watched this movie.  You can read more about it by clicking the link here.

Here is a short video clip from the Cars 2 movie.



I thought it would be a lot of fun to work with an idea from a story about something relevant in our culture that most kids today have seen and love, like the racing in these movies.  My plan was to spend some time racing with Lego cars and learn a little about the countries that hosted the races in these movies. 


TEAMS

Small efficient teams and engineering were at the heart of the learning experience for today.  In the Cars 2 movie, Mater becomes part of an International Spy team.  His team has to help re-design his truck to out run and out wit the bad guys.   In both movies, Lightning McQueen also has a team of mechanics and supporters / friends that help him keep his car in perfect condition to race fast and finish the race.  So working in teams was also important in completing our race challenges today.



We divided into four teams.  Each team was small and had only three members / race car drivers.   This was key in being able to work quickly to build their cars, and complete three important race segments and find their average distance traveled.  The youngest person on the team is racer 1, the next older person is racer 2, and oldest person on the team is racer 3.   The job of the race car driver was to line up the car on the stomper and stomp to make the car race across the floor.  Each team also had an adult helper.

The teams learned about:

• the flag of the country they represented,
  
• located their country on a globe,
  
• learned about flags that are used in actual races, flags send signals to drivers on a race track,
  
• followed directions / blueprints to build a race car
  
• took turns and shared responsibilities
  
• air pressure / air power
  
• how to measure distance
  
• how to find the average of three distances
  
• raced to find out what car had the best design for reaching the farthest distance
  
• how to make / engineer modifications to change the desired outcome

  

Each team was randomly given a race car kit, assigned a country, and given the flag coloring page for that country.  Each person was also given a racing flag coloring sheet too.   We used the Lego Racers building kits. These kits contain a set of blueprints to build the car, various Lego bricks and wheels to build the car, and an air pressure stomp to be assembled.

Each of the 4 teams were given the same instructions and completed three large challenges today.  Everyone went through the same exact steps in each challenge, though each team had a different car to build in challenge one.   Everything was completed and raced in stages.   The pictures I’ve shared with you through out this story are random from all four teams during different stages of our challenges today.


CHALLENGE ONE:
Building Race Cars

Using the Lego Racer kits provided, follow the building plans in the kit and build a race car for your team and country.   

  

Team   Italy   Lego Racers  DRAGON DUELER

                                    

Team  USA    Lego Racers HERO

Team  Japan Lego Racers VICIOUS VIPER

                                    

Team  United Kingdom Lego Racers STING STRIKER

RACE, Measure, Record, Color, Locate, Calculate, and Learn.

Race Car Driver 1: Race your car.  Connect the car to the air pressure stomp.  Stomp it and watch it race across the floor to the other side of the room.  
              
                                            
Team: Measure the distance and record it.  Using a rope and the tape measure, stretch them between the stomper and the location the car ended.  How many inches did the car travel?  Write your answer down on your country’s flag page each time you race. We will use these numbers at the end of the three races.

                                      

Team: Find your country on the globe and show it to your team’s adult helper.

  

Each racer on the team: Color your country’s flag.

                                            
Race Car Driver 2: Race your car again.



Team: Measure the 2nd distance and record it.



Team:  Each race car driver on the team must color the racing flags page and learn what each flag used in a race stands for.  Share the information with your team’s adult helper.



Race Car Driver 3: Race your car again.

                      

Team: Measure the 3rd distance and record it.



CALCULATE

Team: Find the average distance your car raced.  Using the numbers you recorded on your country’s flag page, add all three distances together and divide by 3.  This is the average distance your race car traveled. 

• Friction slows the car down.  Cars that have less friction go farther.  Areas the car experienced friction include wheels, air, and the force of gravity.
  
•  Variations in the person pushing the stomper for air pressure to send the car forward. Some pushed the stomper harder than others.
  
• Variations in the stomper and connection to the car.  Wind power was generated by air under pressure from the stomper.  Some connections moved and separated smoothly and some were tight causing additional friction and loss of power.
  
• Variations in the friction of air moving against the vehicle.  Some vehicle shapes are more aerodynamic than others.  As more of the front of the car hits the air, it captures it as it tries to travel through, and the air slows it down.  Shape is very important.  If less of the shape in front of the car captures air, the car will not be slowed down by the air. 
  
• Weight ratio compared to the size of the car can give it more momentum or less momentum. 
  
• The more decorative extra pieces on a car, such as fancy bumper, extra hight, etc. might slow the car down if it is too heavy or if its grabs the wind.  Either situation can cause more friction and more pull from gravity.

What signals or message do the different color flags used during a race tell or communicate to the race car drivers and their team?
GREEN:  “GO”.  The green flag starts the race.
YELLOW:  “Caution”, there is a problem, slow down and keep your position.
RED: “STOP!”  To be safe you must stop quickly and safely.
BLACK: “Come In”.  Drive your car into the pits.
WHITE: “Last Lap”.  You have one final lap until the finish line, do your best.
CHECKERED: “You WON!”  The checkered flag is waved as the winner crosses the finish line.

 
CHALLENGE THREE
Re-Engineer and Race

Trouble shoot and re-engineer modifications to the cars if needed, then race your team’s car again and see if you can make it go farther.

ALL TEAMS:  Race, and modify three more times to see if you can improve your distance.

What team’s car traveled the farthest out of the last three races?
#1 USA  #2 United Kingdom  #3 Italy  #4 Japan

What car has the best design, needed the least modifications, for going the longest distance today?
Hero, Sting Striker, and Dragon Dueler all performed similar and seem to be the best built for the application we did.

Though some teams made modifications, the end results were similar in challenge 3 to the results in challenge 2.  Team USA, Team United Kingdom, and Team Italy were nearly the same in their outcomes through out all the races. 

In my opinion, the Hero,  Sting Striker, and the Dragon Dueler cars are the better made products for doing this activity.   We only tested out four cars and there are other cars in the Lego Racer series.  I would like to repeat this activity and use the other cars and see if our results were different.

We had a lot of trouble with the Vicious Viper car for several reasons.   The wheels on the Vicious Viper were too tight causing more friction, it had knobbed tires instead of smooth tires, so the tires grabbed the floor differently than the smooth tires, and the vehicle was taller than the other vehicles causing more air friction, and it also did not want to slide off the connector tube on the stomper.



So this vehicle more than any others required a lot of trial and error as the kids and their adult helper continually tested it out and made modifications after each race.  Some of the changes they had to make were to remove some of the decorative pieces lowering the height of the car, loosen the wheels, and lubricate the connector tube.  It was a good experience for them to learn what design flaws were causing the issues and re-engineer ways to improve the vehicle so they could complete the race. 

Unfortunately, in the final set of races, several cars got “stuck” on their stomper mechanisms and it took a little longer for their cars to go.  But we were not competing with race times today, we were competing with race distances, so it did not matter if they weren’t first in racing the car.  But at times, the stuck stomper issue was a little frustrating for the kids as they were so excited for the stomp, and then let down if the car didn’t go on the first attempt.

I made some videos of the final races and combined them with pictures into one video.  I forgot to make videos earlier in the meeting of the earlier races which were awesome to see, but I took lots of pictures.  In this video, you will also see how some cars got stuck on the stomper and see one team trying to re-engineer their vehicle to go the distance.



Vocabulary:
We learned and practiced lots of vocabulary words today.
Average distance
Distance
Measure
Inches
Engineer
Modify
Pressure
Air power
Wind
Friction
Movement
Force
Momentum
Traveling on a Plane vs. an Incline
Build
Design
Change

COLORING PAGES:
Flag Coloring Pages for these countries:
Italy
Japan
UK
USA

Racing Flags Coloring Page for flags used to signal during a race.

Bible Verse:
“I have fought well. I have finished the race, and I have been faithful.”   2 Timothy 4:7


Looking Ahead:

For our next meeting we are planning to build an inclined race track, and use the force of gravity to pull the car down the ramp, and friction to stop the car.  Each kid will build their own Lego race car, and race as individuals (no teams).  Each car will be racing for speed, not for distance next time.  I don’t know if I can pull it off, but I would love to have a robotic sensor that measures the speed at the finish line.  This may be a bigger challenge than I can muster just yet.  Our “judge of time” may be just a stop watch and a parent helper calling out the times, and the robot sensor may come at a future race.  It’s a desired goal anyway.  I know our next race is going to be even more awesome as we see the creativity, design, and engineering skills in action from these kids. 
Stay tuned……………. 


It takes a lot of resources to do these activities and teach these concepts with kids.   In addition to learning together in our meetings, our goal is to progress into a First Lego League Team.   If you would like to donate funds, gift cards, or building kits to help these kids learn more about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) please send me an email at  weiser academy at aol dot com.


Feel free to leave us a comment about this learning activity in the comment section below. Thank you.
   

This post will link up with 
No Time For Flash Cards
Science Sunday
Raising Homemakers
Sharing Time