Field trips include complementary STEM workshops for your class. To schedule contact info@saratogaautomuseum.org

Pre-K & K: Push and Pull

Youth will tour the exhibit to notice how cars have been designed in the past. Then students will make their own model vehicle with pasta wheels to answer the question: “How can we make something easier to push or pull?” Science Standards: P-PS2-1, PS2.A, K-PS2-1

First Grade: Illuminated Cars

How can we drive after dark? Youth will engage in a light themed museum tour to learn how engineers solve the problem of driving safely after dark. After the tour, students will create a circuit to make their own model headlight and use their design to navigate through a short obstacle course of reflective objects. Science Standard: 1-PS4-2.

Second Grade: Gravity Track Cars

Tour the museum to learn about how engineers design vehicles to solve problems. Then create your own vehicle out of reusable materials and test it on our gravity track. Which materials have the best properties for making your vehicle? Which road surface allows your vehicle to travel the farthest? Science Standards: 2-PSI-1, 2PSI-2, 2 PSI-3

Third Grade: Weather Proof Cars

"How are cars designed to solve problems?" Youth will engage in an interactive tour that shows the evolution of vehicles. Youth will explore how engineers adapted their designs to mitigate weather challenges to provide better safety outcomes for drivers.Then youth will be assigned a weather related hazard and rapid prototype a new solution to inclement weather that could be integrated into a vehicle. Science Standard: 3-ESS3-1

Third Grade: Forces and Interactions: Gravity Track Cars

Tour the museum to learn how engineers have designed vehicles to solve problems. Then, conduct several trials with our hot wheels track to predict future motion. What is the relationship between the weight of the car and the distance it travels? What other forces are acting on the vehilces? Science Standards: 3-PS2-1, 3-PS2-2

Fourth Grade: Potential and Kinetic Energy

Tour the museum to collect observations on how engineers modify cars to help solve problems. Then engage in a hands-on science lab to discover how potential energy is transformed into kinetic energy on a gravity track. Youth will be able to collect data on different model cars, perform a fair test to determine which vehicle had the greatest potential energy, and make predictions about what would happen if we added weight to the vehicle before testing it by launching it down the gravity track. Science Standard 4-PS3-1

Fourth Grade: Converting Energy: Light up Concept Car

Tour the museum to collect observations on how engineers modify cars to help solve problems. Then youth will learn about circuits while they create their own model light up concept car. Students will create circuits using conductive and insulative dough and then apply what they’ve learned to design their concept vehicle. Science Standards: 4-PS3-4

Fifth Grade: Chemical Reaction Cars

(outdoor activity, Fall and Spring Only) What is the best way to harness a chemical reaction to move a vehicle? Collect data on the relationship between an acid-base reaction and the amount of CO2 produced. Then apply your knowledge to make a reaction powered vehicle. Science Standards: 5-PS1-4. 5-PS1.B

Fifth Grade: Gravity Tracks

6-8 Grade: Chemical Reaction Airbag

Tour the museum to discover the evolution of safety features in vehicles. Learn how modern airbags are constructed. Then, design a model airbag that uses a chemical reaction to protect your passenger. MS-PS1-2

High School and 8th Grade Programs: Speed Mentoring

Science Standards

P-PS2-1. Use tools and materials to design and build a device that causes an object to move faster with a push or a pull.* [Clarification Statement: Emphasis should be on developing an interest in investigating forces (pushes or pulls). Examples of forces could include a string attached to an object being pulled or a ramp to increase the speed of an object.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to relative measures of speed (slower, faster)]

PS2.A: Forces and Motion Pushes and pulls can have different strengths and directions. (PPS2-1) Pushing or pulling on an object can change the speed or direction of its motion and can start or stop it. (P-PS2-1) PS3.C: Relationship Between Energy and Forces • (NYSED) A push or a pull may cause stationary objects to move, and a stronger push or pull in the same or opposite direction makes an object in motion speed up or slow down more quickly. (secondary to P-PS2-1)

K-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object. [Clarification Statement: Examples of pushes or pulls could include a string attached to an object being pulled, a person pushing an object, a person stopping a rolling ball, and two objects colliding and pushing on each other.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to different relative strengths or different directions, but not both at the same time. Assessment does not include non-contact pushes or pulls such as those produced by magnets.

1-PS4-2. Make observations (firsthand or from media) to construct an evidence-based account that objects can be seen only when illuminated. [Clarification Statement: Examples of observations could include those made in a completely dark room, a pinhole box, and a video of a cave explorer with a flashlight. Illumination could be from an external light source or by an object giving off its own light.] Disciplinary Core Idea: PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation Objects can be seen if light is available to illuminate them or if they give off their own light. (1-PS4-2) Some materials allow light to pass through them, others allow only some light through and others block all the light and create a dark shadow on any surface beyond them, where the light cannot reach. Mirrors can be used to redirect a light beam. (Boundary: The idea that light travels from place to place is developed through experiences with light sources, mirrors, and shadows, but no attempt is made to discuss the speed of light.) (1- PS4-3)

2-PS1-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties. [Clarification Statement: Observations could include color, texture, hardness, and flexibility. Patterns could include the similar properties that different materials share.]

2-PS1-2. Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose.* [Clarification Statement: Examples of properties could include, strength, flexibility, hardness, texture, and absorbency.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment of quantitative measurements is limited to length.]

2-PS1-3. Make observations to construct an evidence-based account of how an object made of a small set of pieces can be disassembled and made into a new object. [Clarification Statement: Examples of pieces could include blocks, building bricks, or other assorted small objects.]

3-ESS3-1. Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.* [Clarification Statement: Examples of design solutions to weather-related hazards could include barriers to prevent flooding, wind resistant roofs, and lightning rods

3-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object. [Clarification Statement: Examples could include an unbalanced force on one side of an object can make it start moving; and, balanced forces (including friction) acting on a stationary object from both sides will not produce any motion at all.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to one variable at a time: number, size, or direction of forces. Assessment does not include quantitative force size, only qualitative and relative. Assessment is limited to gravity being addressed as a force that pulls objects down.]

3-PS2-2. Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion. [Clarification Statement: Examples of motion with a predictable pattern could include a child swinging in a swing, a ball rolling back and forth in a bowl, and two children on a see-saw.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include technical terms such as period and frequency.]

4-PS3-1. Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object. [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include quantitative measures of changes in the speed of an object or on any precise or quantitative definition of energy.]

4-PS3-4. Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.* [Clarification Statement: Examples of devices could include electric circuits that convert electrical energy into energy of motion of a vehicle, light, or sound; batteries that convert chemical energy to electrical energy; and, a passive solar heater that converts light into heat. Examples of constraints could include the materials, cost, or time to design the device.] [Assessment Boundary: Devices should be limited to those that convert motion energy to electric energy or use stored energy to cause motion or produce light or sound.]

4-PS4-2. Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen. [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include knowledge of specific colors reflected and seen, the cellular mechanisms of vision, or how the retina works.]

5-PS1-4. Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances. [Clarification Statement: Examples could include mixing baking soda and water compared to mixing baking soda and vinegar.]

5-PS1.B: Chemical Reactions When two or more different substances are mixed, a new substance with different properties may be formed. (5-PS1-4) No matter what reaction or change in properties occurs, the total weight of the substances does not change. (Boundary: Mass and weight are not distinguished at this grade level.) (5- PS1-2)

5-PS2-1. Support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed down. [Clarification Statement: “Down” is a local description of the direction that points toward the center of the spherical Earth.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include mathematical representation of gravitational force.]

5-PS2.B: Types of Interactions The gravitational force of Earth acting on an object near Earth’s surface pulls that object toward the planet’s center. (5-PS2-1)

MS-PS1-2. Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred. [Clarification Statement: Examples of chemical reactions could include burning of a wooden splint, souring of milk and decomposition of sodium bicarbonate. [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to analysis of the following properties: density, melting point, boiling point, solubility, flammability, color change, gas production and odor.]

Field Trips