Science and Technology K–6 · Years 1–2

Push it further: how the strength of a push changes distance

Working Scientifically only (NSW 2017); Forces can change the way objects move (NSW 2024); Science understanding, Physical sciences (ACARA v9)

PracticalLow risk

The idea

A stronger push sends an object faster and further, and releasing a car from a mark on a ramp gives it the same start every time, so the test is fair.

What you need

A toy car and a 1.00 m ramp with its top end propped 20 cm above the floor, and marks 10 cm, 20 cm and 30 cm up the slope from its foot for release points (2, 4 and 6 cm above the floor)
A 4 m floor tape marked every 10 cm from the ramp's foot
Recording table: release mark, distance travelled, three trials

How to do it

Predict: will the car go further from the 30 cm mark or the 10 cm mark, and by how much.
Hold the car at the 10 cm mark and let go without a push. Read where the front wheels stop. Three trials.
Repeat from 20 cm and 30 cm.
Circle the middle trial for each mark and draw a bar for each.
Now give the car a hand push from the foot of the ramp: gentle, medium, hard. Say why the ramp release is the fairer test.

What you should see

The car travels furthest from the highest mark and least from the lowest, and the three middle-trial bars rise in order 10, 20, 30 cm. In a model where the car loses its energy to a steady rolling resistance, the distance along the floor is proportional to the release distance up the slope, so the 30 cm release should go about three times as far as the 10 cm release and the 20 cm release about twice as far; the class's bars test this answer to the "by how much" prediction. Hand pushes give scattered distances because the push cannot be repeated exactly, which is the reason the ramp is used. The learner knows it worked when the three trials at one mark lie within a few marks of each other and the order of the bars matches the order of the release marks.

What changes

What you change: release mark up the slope (10, 20, 30 cm along the ramp; 2, 4 and 6 cm above the floor)
What you measure: distance travelled along the floor (cm)
What you keep the same: same car
same ramp and floor
released without a push
three trials

Common misconceptions

Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.

The car goes further because it is heavier at the top of the ramp.
A push keeps acting on the car after your hand lets go.

Safety card

Low riskLearners carry it out

Hazards

Car under feet

Controls

Lane kept clear

Note

No chemicals or heat. Record the activity on the school's risk assessment (Primary School RiskAssess, Ecosolve Australia, riskassess.com.au).

Curriculum references

The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.

Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2017), NESA. Current syllabus; NESA's timeline is 2026 plan and prepare, 2027 start teaching the 2024 syllabus. Code read from the official syllabus document on 2026-09-22.ST1-1WS-S
Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2024), NESA. Implementation from 2027, so this code describes the future syllabus. Code read from the outcomes page on 2026-09-22.ST1-SCI-01 ST1-PQU-01 ST1-DAT-01
Australian Curriculum v9AC9S1U03AC9S1I01AC9S1I02AC9S1I03AC9S1I04AC9S1I05

Sources

The pages the author read to write this activity.

All Concept Studio activities