Boing! Balls Bounce

Lab Brief #7

🎯 Your mission

Run the experiment. Find out what really happens.

⚡ The twist

Speed isn't the same as force. Don't mix them up.

What you'll learn

Rubber balls bounce because they are stretchy and springy.

Key words

bounce
To spring back quickly after hitting a surface.

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: where does the energy go?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

ramps

⚠️ Safety first

Have an adult check your set-up before you start, and tidy everything away afterwards.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Say the vocabulary words out loud. Can you repeat them?

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Roll a ball down a ramp. Try making the ramp steeper. What happens?

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

What happened? Tell a grown-up what you noticed.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Tell a grown-up your favorite part of the activity.

Question 1 of 3

Does a ball bounce?

Question 2 of 3

What makes a ball roll?

Question 3 of 3

What happens when you drop a ball?

Mind = blown

⚡ Static electricity is the same physics as lightning, just smaller.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: Spin the Top!All lessons

🎯

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: You use this every time you flip a light switch, ride a bike, or kick a ball.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Time how long a small ball rolls down something, then change the slope and try again.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “Show me something at home that uses this kind of energy.”

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