Creative Dad CompanyCreative Dad Company
ScienceMathEngineering

Forensic Crash Reconstruction

Log in to save
Grades 6-860-75 minSource: Creative Dad Company

Using skid-mark evidence and simple measurements, young investigators calculate speed and impact angles to reconstruct how a toy-car crash happened.

Budget levels

Amazon prices checked Oct 9-10, 2026 and may change

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Quick Start

Digital downloads only.

$0 to buy. Printing noted separately.

Student time: one class period, one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one class period on a single day.

Scale back: Fit it into a shorter period, use fewer effects, or run a demo instead of a build.

Scale up: Add one extra effect, or spread the share-out across another day.

Ambiance video

Ambiance video coming soon from Creative Dad Studio

  • Kitchen scaleBorrow or school hasuse what you have
  • stopwatch or school device slow-motion videoBorrow or school hasuse what you have
  • meter stickBorrow or school hasuse what you have
  • calculatorBorrow or school hasuse what you have

Full Experience

Required materials for the class.

$6.28 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one school day.

Scale back: Fit the build into one period with fewer effects.

Scale up: Spread the work across days, or add more effects.

  • washersRequired1 x 270 pieces270 pieces$6.28Amazon

Total Transformation

The bigger kit, with every optional item included.

$6.28 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day (one session, one-day event).

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one session, a one-day event.

Scale back: Shorten the event, or run a demo for a smaller audience.

Scale up: Spread the build and the event across days, or invite a bigger audience.

Choose your version

Every level teaches the same core idea — pick the one that fits your time, budget, and energy today.

Student time: 35 min, one class periodTeacher prep / build-ahead: 15 min$0 to buy. Printing noted separately.One table or a clear section of floorBeginner-friendly

Setup

Print or hand-copy the essential prompt for Forensic Crash Reconstruction, then set out only paper, pencils, and the common or recycled items needed for one test. Use a tabletop representation whenever the original version mentions a room, specialized device, or digital tool; the learning comes from the decisions and evidence, not elaborate scenery.

Activity

  1. Define the central success test in Forensic Crash Reconstruction and make a paper planning sheet for the inputs, actions, and expected result.
  2. Represent the system without electronics by using labeled cards, paper controls, tokens, a ruler, or a student acting as the device; follow the same cause-and-effect rules described in the project.
  3. Run at least three cases, including one difficult or unexpected case, and record evidence source, measurement method, uncertainty, and confidence rating.
  4. Revise one rule, layout, mechanism, or decision after the failed case, repeat it, and explain with the recorded evidence whether the change worked.

Ambiance video

Ambiance video coming soon from Creative Dad Studio

Done when: The group has completed Forensic Crash Reconstruction when it can present the reconstructed crash sequence like a courtroom expert witness, showing the measurements that support the conclusion and point to the observation, measurement, comparison, or trial that supports its conclusion.

Materials

toy cars, ramps or books, flour or chalk dust, measuring tape, protractor, graph paper; Kitchen scale; washers; stopwatch or school device slow-motion video; meter stick; calculator

Shown for the Quick Start version — switch tabs above to see what changes.

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change.

As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Steps

  1. Examine a staged crash scene and predict the car's speed and direction before impact.
  2. Set up a ramp with a flour-dusted track and marked release heights.
  3. Speed trials: release the car from three heights with mass constant. Measure speed by timing the last 50 cm and record skid length. Do three trials each.
  4. Mass trials: release from one height while adding 0, 2, and 4 washers. Weigh the car each time and record speed and skid length.
  5. Calculate kinetic energy (one half times mass times speed squared) for each run and make two graphs: KE vs mass and KE vs speed.
  6. Interpret the graphs (KE grows steadily with mass but much faster with speed) and use them to estimate the staged crash speed from its skid length.

Standards mapped

  • NGSS · MS-PS3-1

    Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.