Things That Go Experiment

Do your kids love cars, planes, trains, and basically anything that goes? Set up a Things That Go Experiment for your child and watch them have fun playing. My kids have been playing with our setup for 4 days and they’re not tired of it yet! Affiliate links are included in this post.

Things That Go Experiment

We are a little obsessed with books by Mo Willems at our house. We especially love Pigeon and Elephant and Piggie. Mo Willems has a series of Pigeon board books that are super short but still worth the read. In the book The Pigeon Loves Things That Go! (affiliate link), Pigeon looks at things that go – a bus, a train, a plane, and a hot dog?! There always has to be humor in a Pigeon book.

We were inspired by the story to set up an experiment to race the different things that go. It’s a super simple experiment that’s perfect for any age.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

• A race track – we used the Hot Wheels Workshop Track Builder Starter Set (affiliate link) that launches two cars at once. You could also use a ramp like we did in our Kinetic Energy Experiment.
• Things that go – we used a bus, trains, cars, and a plane (but no hot dog)

Test which vehicles go the fastest by racing them two at a time. The winner moves on to the next round. We had to choose vehicles that were short enough to go under the Hot Wheels sign/launch button. Our tall trains didn’t fit.

Lily chose two vehicles and placed them at the top of the launch ramp. She pressed the button and watched them race to the bottom.

The winner makes it through the gate first and trips the flag to its side.

Keep racing the vehicles to determine a winner.

Can you spot a pattern? Does the heavier car always win? Or is it the smallest? How did the plane and train do on the car track?

Who will be your top winner?

Storybook Science Series

This post is a part of the Storybook Science series. Every day in March, bloggers will be sharing science activities inspired by a book. Be sure to follow along!

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