Inclined Planes

We are not trying to get too advanced here with our academics, but I will blame it on the MWF 12 boys who build ramps on a daily basis. That was my inspiration for learning more about inclined planes! Why not? Of course we discussed gravity, height, weight, rolling, sliding, speed, etc., just leaving out the abstract mathematical equations and physics of it all. (They can learn that later!) 

We had a blast of a week.

First off - what is an inclined plane? Anything with a slope!  (As one child described it!)
I made a book of pictures I'd printed off of the internet of different inclined planes...roller coasters, slides, stairs, ramps to move a piano, pictures of our own ramp creations at preschool, etc.

We did an experiment during circle time: 

Prediction, Testing and Results! 

Yes. We are getting very scientific here at preschool. I collected a tub of items that would roll, not roll or roll if placed just right. Then I built a simple ramp (a wedge and a long flat wood piece) and we tested away!!

Ramp and materials ready to go!
I adjusted the long wood piece up or down
as directed by the young scientists.

What will happen? Roll? Not Roll? Roll if placed just right?
(This is the PM session - they thought we needed a higher ramp than just one wedge)

MWF results

TR AM results

TR PM results -- oops! We forgot to tally the results. :) 

It was interesting because 2 out of the 3 results concluded that "placed just right" had the higher amount of items.