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I am a student at Merrimack College working on a science lesson plan on the standard (4-PS3-4 Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.) I am trying to develop lessons for a unit, does anyone have any tips, ideas, or resources that you could direct me to? Thank you in advance for all your help!

Audrey,

I am currently a senior at Wartburg College and thinking back to my senior year of high school we worked on mousetrap cars. This is a fun activity for students to do or even for a teacher to show and have multiple designs ready to test with. The lever on the mousetrap has a sting tied to it and on one or both of the axels of the car. This creates a transfer of potential to kinetic energy that propels the car further. You can make longer arms, bigger wheels, add a rubber band around the wheels for added grip like a car tire, and a lot more variables. The website below is a link to Popular Mechanics that has a video from a former NASA engineer Mark Rober, he does a great job of explaining the physics behind mousetrap cars as well as a boat load of different cars that you can make.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a19653372/mouse-trap-car/