It's a bird...It's a plane...No, wait!! It's a ping-pong ball!

This week, we started an exciting lab report for our unit of study in writing, Lab Reports and Science Books by Lucy Calkins. Students were asked a question and had to come up with a hypothesis, plan their procedures, conduct multiple trials, record results, and analyze results.

Using the catapults we built, which goes farther, the ping-pong ball or the cotton ball?

Spotlight on the Problem/ Hypothesis page

Hypothesis: I think the ping pong ball will go farther because after you shoot it the ball will bounce off the floor a couple times like it does on the ping pong table. 

We love your thinking! Can't wait to read your conclusion page. 

Hypothesis: I think the ping pong ball because it is harder and it has more speed than the cotton ball.

I would have never thought of that! Do you think the size of the ping pong ball matters? You mentioned that it is harder. What if we used a baseball and a ping pong ball? Which one do you think would go farther off of the catapult?

Hypothesis: I think the ping-pong ball because when you play ping-pong it goes far but a force stops it. If a force didn't stop it it would go farther.

Whoaaaaaaaaaaa...did you mention FORCE? Way to use domain specific language in your writing.

Spotlight on the Procedures page

Procedures: This student focused on their drawings to show another scientist what he/she needs to do for this lab. 

We love how detailed the pictures are! I know that if I looked at only your drawings, I would know exactly how to make a catapult and what to do. Way to go!

Procedures: 

Step 1: Put the catapult on a flat surface. Put the long side of the catapult the opposite way you're going. 

Step 2: Put the ping pong ball on spoon on the catapult. 

Step 3: Hold the catapult with one hand.

Step 4: Push the spoon down from the tip. 

Step 5: Measure the distance of how far the ping pong ball and the cotton ball land. 

Step 6: Do the experiment three times for both experiments (cotton ball and ping pong ball). 

Step 7: Use inches for measuring. 

Step 8: Record your data and then compare your data. 

Step 9: Repeat what you did on the ping pong ball experiment. 

We love that you mentioned which way the catapult needs to face! That is a very important detail. Do you think it matters where on the spoon I put the ping pong ball? Thank you for all of the tips! We love that you want to compare your data. What a little scientist you are!!

Procedures:

Step 1: Set up the catapult on a flat surface. 

Step 2: Put the cotton ball in the palm of the spoon. 

Step 3: Push the palm of the spoon and let go.

Step 4: Measure how far it went in inches. 

Step 5: Repeat it two times. 

Step 6: Do the same for the ping pong ball.

Love how you labeled what is needed for this experiment. I know that if we give your procedures to another class they will be able to conduct this exact experiment. Do you think you should mention exactly where to measure? Does it matter what number they begin measuring with?  

We love writing like scientists! 

Leave a comment and feel free to ask our little scientists questions about their lab reports. Next week, we will be comparing results and reading mentor texts to consider new questions. 

Make sure to check back!