If you have a resourceful, adventurous child, chances are he'd love to build his own race car. Full-sized race cars can be expensive and dangerous, but this pop bottle alternative makes the speed, impact, and excitement of race car driving and maintenance easy for everyone to manage and enjoy.
Get his creative engine started by encouraging him to design his own personalized race car and course. Give him a few recycled materials and a couple of dowels, and you'll soon have a young engineer on your hands.
What You Need:
- Cardboard
- Scissors
- Plastic soda bottle, washed and dried
- Hot glue gun (for use with adult help)
- Straw (wider than 1⁄8 inch)
- 2 wooden dowels (1⁄8 inch in diameter)
- 4 plastic soda bottle caps
- Stickers (optional)
What You Do:
- Have your child cut a base for the racecar out of cardboard. It can be any size or shape he wants.
- Help him hot glue the soda bottle to the cardboard. Place the bottle on the cardbord laying down, lengthwise. The bottle will be the body of the car.
- Cut the straw into two 3-inch lengths. Place a line of hot glue on each of them.
- Have your child (carefully!) attach the straws to the under-side of the cardboard, one at the front of the car and one at the back, parallel to one another on the short ends. These straws will hold the axles and allow the wheels to turn!
- Now he can thread a dowel through each of the straws. Show him how the axles spin!
- Put some hot glue inside each of the 4 bottle caps. Have your child stick the 4 bottle caps to the 4 ends of the dowels to make the wheels.
- If he'd like, your child can decorate his new racing machine with stickers from his "sponsors."
- And you're off! Give your child these fun suggestions to enhance his racing experience:
- Make a ramp for your car by propping a piece of cardboard up on an object. How far will the car go?
- Play with the incline of the ramp by propping it up on objects with different heights. How does this change the car's movement? Does it go faster or slower? Does it go the same distance?
- What happens when you add weight? Try putting different objects or liquids inside the bottle.
- Make another car with a smaller bottle. Will it still go as fast as the bigger car?
- Challenge your friends and family to a Pop Bottle Race! Plan a race course starting at your ramp and choose a finish line. Whose car will reach the finish line first?
Get the whole family or even the whole neighborhood involved! With unlimited racecourses and car designs, there's plenty of action for everyone.
By Lynn Brunelle
Adapted from "Pop Bottle Science" by Lynn Brunelle. (Workman, New York, Copyright 2004).
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