Objective:
This lesson is for primary students. The main objective of this mini-teach is for students to learn and understand what inertia is. They will learn the difference between inertia for objects at rest and objects moving in a straight line.
Materials Needed:
Two dolls (Barbie & Ken), two carts (skates, skate board)Strategy:
Place one doll in each cart. Secure one doll with a rubber band, tape or string. Push the carts into a wall. Ask the students what happened and why. (Doll not secured should fly out or fall forward). Talk about seat belts.
So says a suggested lesson plan by Maeola Walker of the Chicago Board of Education, or so says the Chicago Institute of Technology‘s web site.
(Thanks to 2003 Ig Nobel Interdisciplinary Research Prize co-winner Stefano Ghirlanda for bringing this to our attention. INERTIA is the theme of the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Professor Ghirlanda will participate.)
UPDATE September 30, 2006:
Investigator Scott Langill writes:
I did a search for Barbie on the IIT website. It looks like they have Barbie on the brain….