(upbeat music) - It is a great day to learn something new, so start your engines and get ready to learn with my friends, Zoe and Aubrey.

Today, we are going to share some things that I learned this year from my friend, Mr. West.

Mr. West is an amazing teacher who invited my family to participate in his school's Pinewood Derby races.

This was so much fun and something I had never done before.

We were able to make these cars and to race, but I couldn't help but wonder what makes these cars go.

Is it when I push it?

Do the wheels help?

What can make this car or these cars go fast and far?

What I found out is that I'm able to use a ramp like Mr. West had.

But what if you don't have a ramp like this at your school or house?

Do you think we could make one?

- Yes.

- Mm-hmm.

- Well, I have this three ring binder, and we could put a car right here at the tallest part and let it go.

Let's see what happens.

(car clunks) So it went a little fast.

But what do you think we could do to make it go faster?

- We can make it taller.

- Do you think?

Do you agree?

All right, let's see.

We could make this ramp taller, and we can see if it'll go even faster or even further.

All right, you ready to see what'll happen?

All right, I'm going to put it at the tallest part.

(car clunks) Whoa.

All right.

That was really cool to try out.

We made this binder work as our ramp.

What else could you use at home to make a ramp?

What do you think?

Do you have any toys that would work?

- Yes.

- Mm-hmm.

- Like what?

Do you have any blocks?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Or even like a shelf that you could put them off of, right?

Very cool.

Okay, so what if we do this same experiment, but we want to compare a smooth surface and a bumpy surface?

Who has the smooth surface?

- Me.

- Very good.

And yours is bumpy.

All right.

Which one, girls, do you think will make the car go further?

- The smooth.

- You think The smooth?

- The smooth.

- You think the smooth too?

Okay, well, there's only one way to find out.

We are going to experiment using these ramps.

If you don't have one of these at home, you could use cardboard and tape and make something very similar.

And we used books to prop our ramps up.

All right.

Aubrey has the smooth ramp.

Zoe has that ramp that is bumpy.

These ramps are the same height, and we are going to race to see which car is able to go the furthest.

All right, so we've made our prediction.

We think the smooth one is going to go further this time, right?

All right, so put your cars there at the top.

Don't let 'em go yet though.

Put 'em right there.

All right?

On your marks.

Get your wheels right up on there.

Awesome.

On your marks, get set.

Go!

(cars clunk) Uh oh.

We had a ramp malfunction.

I think we should try it one more time.

Let's see what happens here.

All right, one more.

Are you ready?

On your mark, get set, go!

(cars clunk) That smooth ramp, it went a lot further and faster that time.

That was so much fun.

I definitely think the bumps slowed the car down just a bit, and that smooth surface made the car go fast and far.

This was really awesome, you all.

Thank you for helping me.

This was a lot of fun.

Good job.

All right.

Use some of the materials you have at home and make a ramp with your blocks or other toys.

Have fun, experiment, and see how fast the ramps will make your cars go.

(upbeat music)