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As she meets the Queen and King of Hearts in an unusual garden, Alice is invited to play a most unusual game of croquet. Children will experiment with the forces at play during a game of marble croquet and begin to note the mathematical relationships between the height of an incline, the size of a marble, the speed that the marble travels, and the distance the marble and cup wicket travel.
Did You Know?
- A ball rolling down an incline or "slope" gains momentum, another word for "energy" and "speed."
- Force is the power put on another object.
- Croquet was first played in the seventeenth century in England. Played on a green, the game uses mallets, 4-inch balls, and wickets that are shaped like an upside-down "u."
Materials: What You'll Need for Each Student
- rulers (with a grooves down the middle)
- marbles - large and small
- blocks or other stackable items like books for stacking to different heights
- wide masking tape
- paper or Styrofoam cups with an opening cut out of the rim
- observation chart (page 3 of the printable .pdf file)
To Get Ready:
- Make copies of the observation chart.
- Cut out arches from the rims of the cups.
- Cut pieces of masking tape 36" in length for each student.
To Start, Ask:
What comes to mind when you think of croquet?
Activity: Now Try It!:
- Start by creating a ramp for marbles to travel down. Stack blocks (or other stackable items like books) and put one end of the ruler on top of the blocks to create an incline. Measure and record the height of the incline.
- Create a measuring tape for recording the distance the marble travels by placing a line of masking tape at the bottom of the ruler and extending it out in the direction that the marble will roll.
- At the bottom of the ruler, set up a cup, with the cut opening upside-down to allow the marble to roll inside.
- Mark the masking tape to show where you have placed the cup.
- Place a marble at the top of the ruler. Release the marble and watch what happens to the cup.
- Practice releasing the marble from the same spot on the ruler.
- Repeat your experiment several times and measure the distance that the cup moves away from the ruler. Record your measurement on the observation chart. Be careful to replace the cup each time to the mark on the masking tape.
- Now, change the height of the incline and measure it. Repeat your experiment and again, record the distance that the cup moves away from the bottom of the ruler. After you've changed the height once, change it again and observe and record how the distance traveled changes.
- Experiment with other variables. What happens if you release the marble at different points on the ruler? Measure the heights at these different points and compare your results to those found when you release the marble from the top of the ruler.
Extensions:
Compare what happens when you roll marbles of different sizes and weights. Record your observations on the same chart as your first experiments.
Questions to Think about and Ask:
- Does the marble seem to move at different speeds depending on the height of the ramp?
- Do you notice any relationship between the height of the ruler and the distance that the marble and cup travel?
- What is force? What changes the force of a rolling or falling object? Does the size or weight of a marble affect how far it will roll or how hard it hits the cup?
Career Connection:
Civil Engineers use technology to design bridges, harbors, and even the roads and freeways that you drive on everyday. If you enjoy technology and design, you might consider a career in civil engineering.
Assess What Happened: (Students reflect)
Encourage students to look through books or newspapers to find other sports that use rolling balls. Students can make up a new game and write a story for the "Sport Section" of the newspaper using the information that found.
Connect It to the Story!
Following the Tea Party escapades, Alice made her way into a beautiful garden with bright flowerbeds and cool fountains. She found that the gardeners, who looked like playing cards, were painting all of the roses red. Things only became crazier as Alice met the Queen of Hearts who shouted, "Off with her head!" After some convincing from the King of Hearts, Alice's life was saved and she was invited to play a game of croquet. "Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in all of her life: it was all ridges and furrows; the croquet balls were live hedgehogs, and the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and stand on their hands and feet to make the arches." Can you imagine playing such a quirky game of croquet?
Connect It to Standards:
"As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry," ... including the ability to "use data to construct a reasonable explanation." (NSES Standard)
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