Lesson 13 of 30 · Simple Machines

Experiment⭐ 30 XP🛠️ Engineer Shop

Boing! Balls Bounce

🧪Lab Brief #13

Simple Machines.

🎯 Your mission

Run the experiment. Find out what really happens.

⚡ The twist

The first design always fails. That's the point.

🤯

Mind = Blown

🚀 The Saturn V rocket burned 20 tons of fuel per second at liftoff.

🔮

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: what's the weakest part of this build?

What You'll Learn

Rubber balls bounce because they are stretchy and springy.

Key Words

Tap a word to see its definition.

Materials Needed

ramps

Safety First

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

Steps

Step 1 — Read

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

Step 2 — Do

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

Step 3 — Observe

Look closely! What do you see?

Step 4 — Record

Draw a picture of what you learned today.

Check Your Understanding

Question 1

1 of 3

Does a ball bounce?

How sure are you going to be?😐 maybe

🌍

Where you see this in real life

Your phone, your bike, your shoes — all designed with this idea.

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Stretch Challenge

Try this in real life this week.

Build something — anything — out of stuff in your recycling bin.

👨‍👩‍👧

For the dinner table

“What's something around the house you'd redesign — and how?”

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

🪨Share card

Share this experiment

Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.

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Ready?