Roof flaps are a safety feature required on all NASCAR race cars.

In this lesson, middle school students plan and conduct an investigation to help them figure out how roof flaps reduce the chances that a race car will become airborne following a collision.

Materials

• Video—Staying Grounded: How Roof Flaps Work (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80ZNCIoPqtk)

Per group

• Tape
• One index cards (can be cut in half depending on the car used)
• Ramp
• Metric ruler or meter stick
• Stopwatches or student phones with timers
• NASCAR Drag video (scroll to the bottom of the PDF to find the video)
• NASCAR Aerodynamics on the Racetrack video (scroll to the bottom of the PDF to find the video)
• Resource Sheet A—Race Car Adaptations
• Resource Sheet B—Race Car Airflow