Make an Elastic Band Energy Car

Watch the video Wheels on the Bus, then ask a grown-up to help you with this activity!

Families and children are always on the go — but how are they “going?” It’s easy to get so caught up in where we’re going that we can forget that children are just as excited to learn about how we get there! Use this fun science experiment to engineer your own car while teaching children about the different ways we use transportation.

Make an Elastic Band Energy Car: We can be engineers and design a car that runs on elastic energy. Elastic energy does not pollute the air or make too much noise! You will need to collect these supplies:

What You Need:

• 1 elastic band
• 1 plastic or disposable straw
• 2 popsicle sticks
• 2 wooden skewers/thin dowels/long toothpicks — that fit inside the straw and turn freely
• 4 round plastic caps (water bottlecaps)
• Adults: glue (hot glue works best!), a thin nail or paperclip for poking a hole in the plastic cap

What To Do:

1. Place the two craft sticks in a V shape and glue them together. Don’t make the opening of the V too wide.
2. Cut the straw — one piece should be ⅔ of the total straw and then the cut the ⅓ side in half again.
3. Glue one straw on the front end of the car where the craft sticks come together and one on the back end where the opening of the V is.
4. Poke a hole in the center of plastic bottlecaps just big enough for your wooden skewer to go through.
5. Slide one skewer through the straw at the front of the car and one at the back.
6. Push a bottlecap on each end of the skewer to make the wheels. Add glue to keep the wheels in place. Add glue to keep the wheels in place. The skewer and wheels should be able to rotate freely inside the straw.
7. Attach the elastic band around the front of the car, the point of the V shape, and then pull it back and wrap it around the skewer at the back. When you let go, the energy is released and makes the wheels turn. That’s how your bus moves!