Many students brought in soup cans and headed straight to Lobby 51 before school. First, they made a prediction. How far did they think their can would roll? Then they were able to roll them down a ramp to test their prediction while the Science Team recorded the data. Some cans went far, some stopped short, and many curved to the side and hit the wall. Students were asked to think about why their can travelled the way it did. They were encouraged to examine their can and observe other student’s rolls.
 
Finally, students were asked to bring in a second can the next day to try and beat their roll. Their teachers asked them why they thought this can would give them a better roll. Was it lighter? Heavier? Bigger? Smaller? And why did they think that was important? The students made a prediction and then rolled their can.  We asked if it was a better roll, worse roll, or the same and what they thought happened.
 
The students enjoyed rolling their can again and tried to beat their prior record. First Program collected 150 cans of soup in two days for the New York Common Pantry. We hope to make this an annual event.

Some houses are continuing to work with the soup cans. The students and their teachers are busy counting and sorting our cans while others are observing and running tests to find out which cans roll the best. They will be making charts and will post them around the school with our final data. Who says Philanthropy can’t be fun?