Friction Shuffleboard
Andrew Birnbaum, Doug Carroll, Shalyn Davis, James Wade
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Our activity is friction shuffleboard. The play set consists of a small ramp, a puck, a few different blocks with different surfaces on them, and a game board. The children place a combination of the blocks on the ramp and slide the puck down the ramp. Depending on the combination of blocks, the friction between the block surface and the puck slows the puck down. The goal of the game is to slow down the puck just enough to get it into the high scoring section of the game board. Going too far or not far enough means fewer points. |
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The activity box includes everything pictured in the diagram above. In addition, the box contains a variety of small blocks that fit into the U-shaped space in the ramp and a game board. Each block has a different surface attached to it. The game board has color-coded regions on it that have different point values assigned to them. |
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As the name implies, children learn mainly about friction in this activity. By using different materials to slow down or speed up the puck, children learn that frictional force changes depending on the surface. Beyond the scientific principle of friction, children
also learn problem solving techniques. They learn to hypothesize
and experiment in order to reach the desired outcome. By playing
with the different surfaces, they build a knowledge of the properties of
the different surfaces. They then put this knowledge
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This activity is designed for late elementary age students. The concept of frictional force is probably too difficult for younger kids to grasp. Also, the game element of the activity set is probably too simplistic to captivate older students. |
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We've thought of a a number of changes that could be made to this concept already. In one, the slope of the ramp is different in different sections. This means that the kids could change the frictional force for a certain block by moving it from the steep to the gradual inclines. This introduces another variable and complicates the activity. To hold children's interest for a longer time, the goal
of the game could be altered many times. For example, the first time,
the children would have to use blocks A, B, and C to get the puck into
a certain area. The next time, the children would have to use different
blocks to get the puck into a different area.
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