Quick & Easy STEM Activity: Slow Marble Roll, ready for Google Classroom
Google Docs™
Description
This activity is super fun! Instead of trying to make a marble roll fast, the idea is to slow it down as much as possible. Groups tend to tackle this in a similar way (doing slalom-type patterns), but some groups are pretty creative and make unique marble tracks.
Materials needed:
- large sturdy board for each group- you could get something that’s made of wood or use foam board,like this
- Something to prop the boards up that is the same for each group—I used bricks
- A marble for each group
- Timers/stopwatches
- A roll of tape for each group
- 50 pieces of fettuccine noodles for each group
Time required: my students had two 45-minute class periods to build, 20 minutes of the third day to make any final changes, and then we tested during the second half of that third day.
NOTE: This activity would be great for students at so many grade levels—I use this with high school students and they have a blast. If you do this with lower grades, you might need to modify the instructions and calculations to be more lower-grade level-friendly.
The product includes instructions, a criteria/constraints discussion page, a grading rubric, and reflection questions.
