Students are presented with the phenomenon of car design features that increase driver safety during high-speed collisions.
Students analyze a high-speed collision to track the race car’s energy between two points in time: just before the collision to the end of the collision. Students’ noticings and questions create the need to investigate different materials’ ability to store energy by changing size and shape (deforming). The lesson continues with students trying to determine how the structure (shape) of specific racecar design features contribute to a material’s ability to store energy (function).
Materials
- 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Crashes #1 video
- Clip A: 0:30 to 1:25
- Clip B: 2:00 to 2:45
- Clip C: 6:39 to 7:50
- “Next Gen design carries legacy of safety into future” (excerpt from Next Gen design carries legacy of safety into future)
- Slideshow of Generation 5, 6, and Next Gen NASCAR racers
- Organizer for modeling collision
- Bouncing balls video
- Composition of balls
- Slow-motion video of ball dropping and deforming
- Data table
- Thermal images of point of collision between the ball and the floor
- Ball made of modeling clay
Student Materials
Per group
- Ball (golf, tennis, baseball, softball, solid rubber, hollow rubber, foam [dense], steel)
- meter stick
- Decibel Meter Sound Detector (free app for phones)
- Infrared camera or infrared thermometer (optional)
- Painter’s tape
Per student
