Students investigate everyday objects that make sounds and look for patterns in their data that help them understand that objects cannot make sound unless they are in motion.

Students investigate how easily objects made of rubber, plastic, and metal slide along a surface.

Students investigate what the effect of adding carbon fiber (fabric) to plastic (glue) has on the observable properties of the resulting object.

Students use the shape (structure) of a roll cage to try to determine the roll cage’s function in a NASCAR race car.

NASCAR race cars are made up of many different parts, and these parts are made of many different materials.

In this lesson, students explore how the air inside the tires can support the weight of the race car—all 3,300 pounds!

NASCAR drivers move along the track at speeds of more than 200 mph. How much time do these race car drivers have to react to avoid trouble ahead?

NASCAR drivers move along the track at speeds of more than 200 mph. How much time do these race car drivers have to react to avoid trouble ahead?

Students experience the phenomenon of NASCAR race car tires and brake pads reaching temperatures so high that the brake pads glow red during a race!

Students experience the phenomenon of NASCAR race car tires and brake pads reaching temperatures so high that the brake pads glow red during a race!

Students develop and apply ideas about chemical reactions and energy to explain how the restrictor plates introduced in the 1986 season reduced speeds of NASCAR race car engines at Talladega and other superspeedways.

Students are presented with the phenomenon of car design features that increase driver safety during high-speed collisions.

Through video clips, students experience crashes (between cars and between cars and the track wall) that occurred during NASCAR races, which raises this question: How do speed and mass (weight) affect the amount of damage to a race car in a collision?

While many NASCAR fans wonder how race cars can achieve speeds of more than 200 mph., middle school students consider how drivers are able to slow their cars from 200 mph. to 0 mph.!

In this lesson, students make observations and analyze published data to help them explain how the design of NASCAR race cars (structure) causes air to firmly push the car down onto the track (function).

Students analyze airflow data and data they collect in their own investigation to gather evidence to explain how race car design features both help the car move through the air and propel the car forward.

Using readily available materials, students investigate the effect of air temperature on air particles in a closed system.

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.

Design and drive your own race car while learning about aerodynamics and engineering with this one-of-a-kind online simulation.