My students cheered when they found out we were building a Newton's Cradle! They loved learning about this Law of Motion and creating their own model to demonstrate it! Your students will love this, too!!

In this challenge students will use materials to design and create a Newton’s Cradle. In this event students will review what they know about the laws of motion- especially the third law. Students will have to build the frame for the device, a way to attach string to the marbles, and a way to attach string to the frame. This can include measuring as the length of the strings is a factor.

★ You will need supplies in addition to this package. This includes Craft sticks, Straws, Beads, Cardboard pieces, Masking tape, Pipe cleaners, Rubber bands, Paper clips and binder clips, Marbles, String, and Hot Glue guns and glue- one glue gun per team. The option of using hot glue for the assembly is yours to make. You may want to ask for parental help in your classroom- depending on the age of your students.

NOTE: This was tested with fifth graders and is recommended for that age group or older students. This is an amazing challenge, but it is a challenge. It may take many tries to get the strings attached and working. Students will love the task and cheer when their device works - even if it works imperfectly!

The package specifically includes:

• Cover
• Teacher background
• Materials and preparation page
• 6 pages of teacher directions
• Constraints list
• Special page of information about Newton’s Laws of Motion
• 4 pages of photographs
• Student lab sheet
• Scoring rubric
• Terms of Use page
• Forms for this challenge are provided in an editable format!
• Student answer sheets are not included, but samples from student work are included in the teacher direction pages.
• The page count listed for this package includes everything.

This challenge will need 1 - 2 class sessions to complete. We needed two full class sessions to complete this project.

The total page count for this download is 23.