Forces and Motion
Use before or after visiting the Making Trax area of Big Bang 2013 to support the teaching of forces and movement at Key Stages One and Two. Investigate forces and design fair tests using balloon powered cars, water rockets or aeroplanes. Watch a video to show great ideas for teaching forces and motion to your class including a jelly and chopsicks race!
Balloon Powered Car
If visiting the Bloodhound stand at 2013 Big Bang inspired children to find out more about racing cars, then challenge children to work in teams to make their own balloon powered car. These cars may be modified by groups and then raced to see which is the fastest or used as a fair test by changing one aspect of the design in each group.
Forces and Motion
This video shows some great ideas for teaching forces and motion at Key Stages One and Two.
Teach forces in Key Stage One by creating a model of the 'big bad wolf' from clay. Challenge Key Stage Two children to investigate which track will be best for their rocket balloons to fly down. Introduce friction with a jelly and chopsticks race and look at air resistance using paper helicopters.
Water Rockets
Make water rockets and and launch them in preparation for visiting the Virgin Galactic stand at the Big Bang 2013. This activity shows the force required to propel the rockets. Children could investigate varying the size or shape of the bottle,the amount of water inside them or the angle at which they are launched.
Rocket Images and Video
Show these images of rockets and a video of a launch as an introduction to investigating rockets or whilst studying about space. They include Saturn V which powered the Apollo missions and current Delta and Atlas rockets.
Can It Fly?
Three activities with teachers notes aimed at Key Stage One linking forces and movement and D&T. Use a presentation and card activity to look at different animals and decide if they can fly. Investigate helium-filled balloons and make and test paper aeroplanes.
Aircraft Forces
Challenge children to think about the types of forces that apply to an aircraft during flight using activities based on the RAF's Red Arrows display team. Includes a presentation showing the pushes and pulls acting on an aircraft in flight an investigation using plastic tubs to investigate how pushing forces and friction affect movement.