Learning about Motion through Action

Bretton Woods Elementary School students in Elia Figari’s and Danielle Sukoff’s fourth grade class recently participated in a Balloon Lab that explored Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

The students worked in teams to create balloon rockets using a balloon, straw, meter stick and string. After the students assembled their balloon rockets, they completed three trials to measure how far their rocket would travel down the length of the string. As the air in the balloon was released, the force pushed the balloon down the string to a waiting team member on the other end of the string. The students recorded the time and length that the balloon traveled along the string for each trial. They then discussed Newton’s Third Law of Motion in their groups and also applied it to a scenario with a baseball hitting a bat. “The students had a great time and were able to see Newton’s Law of Motion in action through this hands-on experience,” the teachers stated!