Race Car Ramps

Race Car Ramps – Let’s Roll!
Materials:
- Toy cars (Hot Wheels or Matchbox Cars are a good size)
- Small balls such as pom poms, ping pong balls or tennis balls
- Plastic drinking cup (especially fun if the top of the cup has a bigger diameter than the bottom!)
- A variety of materials such as:
- Paper towel or toilet paper tubes
- Pieces of stiff cardboard
- A book or two
- Wooden blocks
- Other household objects like empty tissue boxes, poster tubes, or even a chair might come in handy!
- An adult to play with you
What to do:
- Think about how different objects move. What part helps a car to roll?
- Use your found materials to see if you can set up a ramp that allows your car to roll downhill. For instance, you might prop a book or a stiff piece of cardboard on a stack of blocks or the rung of a chair.
- How fast does your car go? How far?
- Can you change your ramp to make your car go faster? Go further?
- What happens when you send one of your balls down the ramp?
- What happens when you roll your plastic cup down the ramp? Does it move in the same way as your cars or balls?
- Can you make a tunnel for your car or balls?
- What other materials could you use to make your ramp better?
Contact education@vinsweb.org with questions or comments.