1. TENNIS BALL BOUNCE

2. CHALLENGE
Find the relationship between the height from which a tennis ball is dropped and the height of its resulting bounce.

3. 1. STATE THE PROBLEM
How would you state this challenge in the form of a question?
Does the height from which a tennis ball is dropped affect how high it will bounce?

4. 2. GATHER INFORMATION What do you know about…
the material in tennis balls?
they are made of inflated rubber a stretchy substance and they are covered in felta soft material

5. 2. GATHER INFORMATION What do you know about… gravity?
it’s a force that pulls everything on Earth toward Earth’s center
“What goes up,
must come down!”

6. 2. GATHER INFORMATION What do you know about…
Newton’s First Law of Motion?
says the motion of the tennis ball will not change unless a force is exerted on it causing the tennis ball to speed up, slow down, or change direction

7. 3. FORM A HYPOTHESIS
Based on the information gathered, what would your hypothesis be?
IF the height from which a tennis ball is dropped is increased, THEN the height the tennis ball bounces back up will also increase.

8. 4. TEST THE HYPOTHESIS WITH AN EXPERIMENT
At this time, your teacher will give instructions on how you are going to conduct your experiment.
Materials needed to conduct
the experiment:
“Tennis Ball Bounce” sheets 
Pencil 
Tennis ball 
Measuring device

9. PROCEDURE
drop a tennis ball from the various heights of 24, 36, 48, & 60 inches
observe & measure how high the tennis ball bounces back up after hitting the ground using the measuring devise
record your findings in your table
repeat each drop for the various heights 3 times

10. IMPORTANT
Do not forget to record all of your data.

11. Well…What are you waitin’ for?
LET’S GET TO EXPERIMENTIN’

12. What Were Your Findings?
Now that your experiment has been conducted, let’s take a look at an example of what your table may look like.

13. Your table may look something like this:
Bounce Height of Tennis Ball (in)
Drop in Height of Tennis Ball
(in)
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Average 24 14 15
14.33 36 22 21
21.67 48 27 28
27.33 60 32 33 34

14. Can you answer this question?
What is the independent (manipulated) variable in this experiment?
It is…
the height from which the tennis ball is dropped.

15. Can you answer this question?
What is the dependent (responding) variable in this experiment?
It is…
the height the tennis ball bounces back up after hitting the ground.

16. Can you answer this question?
What are the controlled (constant) variables in this experiment?
They are…
the measuring devise
the measuring units used
the type of ball

17. 5. ANALYZE YOUR DATA
Your graph may look something like this…

18. 6. DRAW CONCLUSIONS
What can you conclude from the results of your experiment?
The hypothesis was correct!!
The greater the height from which a tennis ball is dropped, the higher it will bounce!