Balloon Races

Today was such a blast! Teaven lead the activity today with the main idea that "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." Sound familiar? It is Newton's Third Law! The girls did not understand the law at the beginning of the hour, but by the end, they had it down pat.

We brought balloons, straws, and ribbon for the balloon races. The girls blew up their balloons and taped a straw to the surface of the balloon. Then they threaded ribbon through the straws so that the balloons were hanging off the ribbon. The most important factor was that they did not let go of their balloon so that all the original air remained in the balloon.




At least two girls raced against each other at one time by letting go of their balloons. The girl whose balloon reached the end of the ribbon first was the winner. Eventually, we created a "bracket" and the winner of the entire group got to pick a fun prize.


The girls learned about the opposite reaction to blowing up a balloon. They saw how letting the air out pushed the balloon to the other side of the ribbon. They also learned that the bigger they blew up their balloon, the faster and further the balloon traveled. Overall, they had a great time and we did too!