Rubber Band Racers

Student Worksheet:
Design a Rubber Band Racer 

You are a team of engineers who have been given the challenge to design your own rubber band car out of everyday items. The rubber band car needs to be able to travel a distance of at least 3 meters within a 1 meter wide track. The car that can travel the farthest distance within the track is the winner. 

  Planning Stage
Meet as a team and discuss the problem you need to solve. Then develop and agree on a design for your rubber band car. You'll need to determine what materials you want to use.

Draw your design in the box below, and be sure to indicate the description and number of parts you plan to use. Present your design to the class.

You may choose to revise your teams' plan after you receive feedback from class.

Design: 																																																																																																																																																																																																																																				
Materials Needed:

Rubber Band Racers

Student Worksheet (continued):

 Construction Phase
Build your rubber band car. During construction you may decide you need additional materials or that your design needs to change. This is ok – just make a new sketch and revise your materials list.

 Testing Phase
Each team will test their rubber band car. Your rubber band car must travel 3 meters within a 1 meter wide track. Calculate your car’s speed (distance traveled per unit of time). Be sure to watch the tests of the other teams and observe how their different designs worked.

Rubber Band Car Data
	
	Distance Traveled within Track (m)	Time Traveled within Track (s)	Speed (m/s)
	
Test 1

Test 2

Test 3

Average 

  Evaluation Phase
Evaluate your teams' results, complete the evaluation worksheet, and present your findings to the class.

Use this worksheet to evaluate your team's results in the Rubber Band Racer Lesson:
1.	Did you succeed in creating a rubber band car that traveled 3 meters within the track?  If so, how far did it travel? If not, why did it fail?

Rubber Band Racers

Student Worksheet (continued):

2.	Did you negotiate any material trades with other teams? How did that process work for you?

3.	What is the average speed your car achieved? 

4.	Did you decide to revise your original design or request additional materials while in the construction phase? Why?

5.	If you could have had access to materials that were different than those provided, what would your team have requested? Why?

6.	Do you think that engineers have to adapt their original plans during the construction of systems or products? Why might they?

Rubber Band Racers

Student Worksheet (continued):

7.	If you had to do it all over again, how would your planned design change? Why?

8.	What designs or methods did you see other teams try that you thought worked well?

9.	 Do you think you would have been able to complete this project easier if you were working alone? Explain…