Science Department Report 

What's on in our science classrooms during Term 2? 

Year 8 Physics Energy – Rubber Band Car Investigation: 

As part of the Year 8's term 2 physics unit on the topic ‘energy’, a number of classes participated in building an elastic rubber band powered car.  

The students were required to work in groups to construct a car propelled by rubber bands that could travel across a distance.  

Prior lessons aimed to provide students with an understanding of energy conversion, energy loss, friction, and to use this understanding to improve design and maximize car performance. Students then summarized and drew conclusions based on the data found through the investigation.  

The Year 8's findings included:  

• “When you wind up the car's axle you stretch the rubber band and store potential energy”

   

• “When you release it the rubber band starts to unwind, and the potential energy is converted to kinetic energy as the car is propelled forward.” 

   

• “The more you stretch the rubber band, the more potential energy is stored, and the farther and faster the car should go.” 

Students also discovered that in practice some of the above were difficult to achieve. Our Year 8 classes discovered that several things could prevent their car from working well such as:

• If the wheels are not aligned properly, their cars would wobble or jam and prevent the car from rolling smoothly.  

   

• The rubber band could also slip relative to the wooden axle, preventing the wheels from spinning. 

   

• Even if the wheels did spin, there might not have be enough friction with the ground, causing them to spin in place without moving the car. 

Highlighting to the Year 8 students that these are all challenges which can be overcome with a little engineering effort!!! 

At the end of their investigation our Year 8's raced their cars to see who had the most effective. 

The overall winning team consisted of Isaac, Loki and Alfie with their car travelling a total distance of 3m 82cm.  

Closely behind in second place,  was Declan and Casey, their car travelling a total distance of 3m 70cm and in third place we had Ruby and Iona with their rubber band powered car travelling 2m 99cm.  

Well done to all the Year 8 students on their efforts and participation in the elastic rubber band powered car investigation. 

Coming up in Science! 

Year 10 and 11 Exams 

We ask families to ensure their child has the following essential equipment in order to successfully attempt their Science exams:  

• Ruler 

• Scientific calculator 

• Grey lead pencils 

• Blue/Black pens 

• Highlighters 

• Sharpener 

• Eraser 

In particular we have noticed students not bringing their calculators and rulers to class this term.  This equipment will play a large role in student success at exam time. 

We thank families for supporting us by having this discussion with your child.  

Year 7 – Separating Mixtures Competition 

The science team will be hosting a competition for Year 7 students to put their learning into practice and separating a messy mixture into pure water!