The River Vale Free Public Library is a member of the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS). This consortium of 77 public libraries delivers quality library service to the general public through sharing of books and other materials, purchasing, maintaining and sharing a computer system and providing common access to the cooperative's data bases. Your River Vale Library card enables you to access the collections of all members of the cooperative by using the BCCLS online catalog.
Library Cards
STEM Activities
At-Home Edition
Pom Pom Drop
Supplies needed:
-
Paper towel or toilet paper tubes
-
Scissors
-
Tape
-
Pom poms or other types of small balls like marbles or bouncy balls
-
Stopwatch or egg timer
How to:
-
Cut the paper towel rolls in half.
-
Tape the rolls to a wall or window so that a pom pom can roll through them. See picture or try your own design!
-
Test out your design using a pom pom and make adjustments.
-
Try dropping other types of balls through the drop to see how different sizes, weights, and densities of materials fall.
-
How does the weight of the ball affect how fast it goes through the drop?
-
Try building a pom pom drop that can keep a ball going for more than 10 seconds.
-
Test out two different types of balls and see how you can get them to drop in the same number of seconds.
How does it work?
The pom pom drop shows us how gravity works. Gravity is the force by which a planet or other body draws objects toward its center. The force of gravity keeps all of the planets in orbit around the sun. Why do you land on the ground when you jump up instead of floating off into space? Why do things fall down when you throw them or drop them? The answer is gravity: an invisible force that pulls objects toward each other. Earth's gravity is what keeps you on the ground and what makes things fall.
(from https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/what-is-gravity/en/, 2019)
Want to learn more?
Check out these eBooks (available on Hoopla with your library card):
