A finished bar graph does the work on this 3-page 3rd grade sheet. The graph is titled How far did the car roll? and shows five surfaces on a scale from 0 to 160 centimeters: sandpaper 30, carpet 50, grass mat 70, wood 130 and ice tray 150. A short box reminds students what friction is. Six questions on page 2 ask them to read bars, find a difference, order the surfaces by friction and explain one result.
3.MD.B.3
“Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step how many more and how many less problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs.”
Students read rather than draw the graph. Question 3 reads a bar and question 4 is a how-many-more problem.
“Use how far a car rolled as evidence of how much friction a surface has.”
Questions 1, 2, 5 and 6 turn distances into friction rankings and an explanation.
A short setup about a class rolling a toy car down a ramp, a Remember box defining friction, and the five-bar graph with a labeled distance axis.
A word bank of the five surfaces, then questions on the most and least friction, the distance on the grass mat, and how much farther the car rolled on wood than on carpet.
A row of five boxes from 1 (Most) to 5 (Least) friction, and one written question on why the car stopped sooner on sandpaper.
All six answers, with the subtraction 130 cm minus 50 cm shown for question 4.
Graph before questions
Ask what the tallest and shortest bars tell you before anyone writes. Some students read a tall bar as more friction, and the Remember box is there to catch that.
After your own ramp test
Run a quick ramp test with classroom surfaces first, then compare your results to this class's graph. Students see the same pattern in their own numbers.
Question 4 check
Question 4 asks for a difference, not a reading. Have students mark both bar tops with a pencil and subtract, then check the gap against what they see.
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