P1 celebrated Outdoor Classroom Day with an investigation using toy tractors. We wanted to find out which tractor would travel the furthest using a single push.
To begin with we explored the distance travelled as a tractor race. Children soon recognised that the larger tractors travelled furthest so our testing wasn’t fair. Through questioning they decided to group themselves according to the size of their tractors. Separate Races were held for small, medium and large tractors, with the furthest distance recorded using a coloured marker. Our visual results showed us that the large tractor went furthest, next surprisingly was the smallest and the medium tractors travelled the shortest distance. The children were keen to try testing their tractors on a different surface opting to use the grass. Before doing this one child used his stride to measure the distance to each marker so we could compare results between the smooth playground and the grassy surface. We repeated our investigation on the grass and found that all tractors travelled a shorter distance on this surface. We concluded that the large tractor travelled furthest on both surfaces and talked about how the grass was creating a force (friction)which meant all tractors travelled a shorter distance. The children then had the opportunity to look for different surfaces to try their tractors on.
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