Balloon Jet Car Report
By Melissa Wiggins
In the 8th grade Science class at Carolina Day School they were recently given a project that challenged them. We were given a task to make a balloon Jet car using a wooden skewer, four lifesavers, one note card, a balloon, and two straws. The grade was based on how far the Jet car went. One of the 8th grader’s jet car went 7.95 meters, which makes her grade a solid A. Even though she got to her goal, it took her awhile to get to that point. She went through about 4 jet cars before she finally got an A. The motion in this project was off and on. She would get farther and farther almost every time, but there were some times that she would have an off day. Her reference point was from the start line to wherever her car went. The class overall did extremely well.
Distance (m)
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Results
In the balloon Jet Car Project I think Mr. Lammers constructed the procedure carefully and thoughtfully. Since my balloon Jet car went 7.95 meters, my grade was an A. I think he chose the distances considerately. He knew people could make it to a certain distance and he based your distance on your final grade. I think he made 8 meters an A+ because he wanted to challenge us in the project. This drove us to attempt to master this project by getting the highest score.
A perfect Balloon Jet Car is hard to come by in this project. To get one of these you have to have the time and patience to succeed in this task. My idea of a perfect balloon Jet car is one that goes far enough to reach an all time record. It has to truly work, not one time but all. I think you have to have the axles turn and not as much the wheels. The skewer has to go through the straw and the note card. The axles turn more than the wheels because that is what makes the wheel audible.
In my car it was important to have speed and distance in my jet car. I had to have speed and distance because without the speed I don’t think the car would have gone far. I think that when the car had a good speed going in the beginning it would not run out as fast as it would if it started at a slow speed.
My Balloon Jet car had both negative and positive acceleration. It’s positive was that it got to where I wanted it to go, and that it actually moved. It’s negative was that most out the many times it did not go anywhere. In the final test I was proud that it did not turn or swerve and that it just stayed perfectly straight until it hit the wall. The negative side to the final test was that the wheels were not spinning as much as I wanted them to be.
When building and testing my balloon jet car there were many problems that occurred. At the start of the project I had no idea what to build. When I did have an idea what to build the card on the structure it touched the ground which caused it to not move. I fixed the card on the structure, and it started to roll. (confusing) When first testing my car swerved all over the room, and to solve this problem I fixed the wheels so that they were all in line with each other.
In this project it didn’t just teach me to build a jet car, it taught me a very valuable lesson for life. Instead of just giving up when something did not work out, I tried and tried again until I got it right. Instead of giving up when something doesn't come easily, you try again until you get it right.
My effort during this project was consistent. I think if I just slacked off through half of the project I would have never gotten an A. I learned that if you don’t give up on something you are most likely accomplish your goal.
In my next 8th grade upcoming project I plan to stay more concentrated on my task and not on my friends. I think this will help me get a lot more done in a short amount of time.
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