Students launch with a Race Day Kickoff Gallery Walk of past derby cars, recording one effective feature, one question, and one idea to try before sharing a team goal with Boy Scouts partners. Teams investigate what design changes help a vehicle move farther and faster while remaining stable and how evidence about force and motion can guide improvement. Through repeated builds and track tests, students collect performance data, revise designs, and complete a gallery-walk reflection to learn from classmates’ vehicles. Students present a brief oral defense connecting their design choices and test results to force and motion, then reflect on their persistence, teamwork, and problem-solving. Class winners advance to the final competition at the January New Tech Showcase.

Students will explain how gravity, friction, mass, and balanced or unbalanced forces affect a vehicle’s speed, distance, and stability. They will conduct controlled track tests, calculate and compare performance, analyze data, and use evidence to revise their designs. Through the kickoff gallery walk and feedback from classmates and Boy Scouts partners, students will identify effective features, ask questions, set team goals, and apply new ideas. Students will justify their final vehicle in an oral defense and closing reflection, using test results to explain design choices and growth in persistence, teamwork, and problem-solving before the class race and New Tech Showcase final.

Students will create kickoff gallery-walk sticky notes identifying an effective feature, a question, and an idea to try, followed by a team design goal. Teams will produce vehicle sketches, a race-ready prototype, test-data logs, and revision records showing how changes affected speed, distance, and stability, with feedback from Boy Scouts and classmates. Each student will complete a gallery-walk reflection and a final oral or written reflection about evidence-based design decisions, persistence, teamwork, and problem-solving. Teams will present their final vehicle and data in a brief oral defense before class races, with each class winner advancing to the January New Tech Showcase competition.

Invite Boy Scouts partners to stage a Race Day Kickoff Gallery Walk featuring past derby cars and a brief demonstration race. Students examine the vehicles and leave sticky notes naming one effective design feature, one question, and one idea they could apply to their own build. Teams use their observations to set a performance goal and predict which changes could help a vehicle move farther and faster while remaining stable. Close by introducing the challenge to test, improve, and defend a vehicle using force-and-motion evidence before the class race and New Tech Showcase final.

Host a class Pinewood Derby Exhibition where each team displays its vehicle, test data, and key design changes before competing on the track. Students give a brief oral defense explaining how force, motion, and evidence shaped their final design, while Boy Scouts and classmates provide feedback. Each class-period winner advances to the January final competition at the New Tech Showcase. After racing, students complete a final reflection on their design evidence and growth in persistence, teamwork, and problem-solving.