Daily STREAM Activity: Why Do Balls Bounce?

Let's experiment!

Activity best for children age 2 and up

What happens when you drop a ball that you are playing with? Does it bounce or just fall down on the ground? When you drop a ball like a tennis ball gravity pulls it down and the force of the ball hitting the ground puts an equal force back onto the ball making it bounce.  A tennis ball is made of elastic material that allows it to be squashed or stretched. Most balls are made of this kind of elastic material that help the balls to bounce. If you had a ball made of glass, which is not elastic, and dropped it on the ground the glass ball would break. However, if you dropped a glass ball onto a soft material like blankets or pillows, it likely won’t break because the ball is falling onto something soft and elastic. With this experiment you can test out different kinds of balls and  surfaces to see if you can get balls to bounce.

Materials you’ll need:

Ping pong ball

Tennis ball

Soccer ball

Football

Hard surface like a wood floor or a sidewalk

Soft surface like grass or carpet

Guiding Questions:

Will the shape of the ball make it bounce?

Will the size of the ball make it easier or harder to bounce?

Does the ball bounce on the sidewalk? On grass? On a towel?

Which ball bounces higher? Do soccer balls bounce as high as tennis balls?

How high did your ball bounce? As high as a chair? As high as a tree?

Directions

STEP 1
Gather the different types of balls you want to bounce.

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STEP 2

Pick up the ball you want to test out first. Drop it and see what happens. Did it bounce? High? Not so high? What if you drop it on to another type of surface. What will happen?

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STEP 3
Pick up another ball and see what happens with that ball. What if the shape of a ball is not round? Does it bounce?

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Grown ups, are you looking for more ways to extend your child’s learning? Check out these extension activities to build upon today’s STREAM activity!

Using a measuring tape see if you can measure how high the different balls can bounce. You can also weigh the balls on a scale and see if heavy balls bounce less or more than lighter balls.

Reading Connection 

Ball and Balloon by Rob Sanders

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