# Bag of Wonder: The Car > A family car’s whole day: buckle up, drive the lanes, swish through the rain. Then pull it apart! A free interactive 3D exhibit for children aged 2 to 6, from Curiosity's Child in Troy, Michigan. - Interactive exhibit: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/car/ - Ages: 2 to 6. The story is pitched at the youngest; the tap cards give older children more to chew on. - Cost: free, with no sign-in, no ads and no tracking. - Works on: phones, tablets and computers, in a web browser. Sound on for the narration. ## What it is Interactive 3D electric family car. A time slider follows the car's day: parked outside the house in the morning, the doors open and everybody buckles up, the start button wakes it, a see-through view shows the battery under the floor sending electricity to the motor that turns the wheels, then it drives off, steers round a corner, turns on its lights and wipers in the rain, brakes at a crosswalk so a person can walk across, and goes home to charge. A second slider pulls the car apart (body, doors, seats, seat belts, steering wheel, battery, motor, axles, wheels and tyres, brakes, springs, frame, lights), with labels; tapping a part shows a child-friendly fact. How to play: press play to hear the story (read aloud in Kelly's voice, with the words on screen). Slide the time slider back and forth to see any part again. Slide "Pull apart" to see what is hidden inside. Tap any glowing button for a fact. ## The story 1. Good morning, poppets! Here is a family car, parked outside its house. Today it's going on a little trip. 2. The doors open wide, and everybody gets in. There's a soft seat for each person, and a seat belt. Click! Everybody buckles up. 3. The driver presses the start button. The car wakes up, and its lights come on. Listen... it's very quiet! 4. What makes it go? Under the floor is a big battery, full of electricity. The electricity goes to the motor, and the motor turns the wheels. 5. Off we go, nice and slowly! The wheels go round and round, and the rubber tyres grip the road. 6. To go round a corner, the driver turns the steering wheel, and the front wheels turn too. Round the corner we go! 7. Pitter, patter, here comes the rain! On go the lights, so everyone can see us, and the wipers go swish, swish. 8. Here is a crossing. The driver presses the brake pedal. The car slows down and stops, so people can walk safely across. 9. Home again! The car is plugged in, to fill its battery up with electricity, ready for tomorrow. Night night, car! ## The parts, and what we tell children These are the tap cards, word for word. - **The body**: The body is the car's outside shell, made of thin, strong metal and glass. It keeps the wind and rain out, and everyone snug inside. - **Doors**: This family car has four doors, so everyone can get in and out. The back doors have child locks, so they only open from the outside. - **Seats**: A soft seat for every person. Little children ride in a special car seat, made just their size, that keeps them safe. - **Seat belts**: A seat belt holds you gently in your seat. Click! Everybody in the car wears one, on every trip, even short ones. - **Steering wheel**: When the driver turns the steering wheel, a long rod and some clever gears turn the front wheels, left or right. - **Battery**: A big, flat battery lies under the floor. It stores the electricity that makes the car go, like the batteries in a toy, but much, much bigger. - **Electric motor**: The motor uses electricity from the battery to spin round and round, very fast and very quietly. Its spinning turns the wheels. - **Axles**: Strong spinning rods called axles carry the turning from the motor out to the wheels. - **Wheels and tyres**: Four wheels, each with a rubber tyre full of air. The bumpy pattern on a tyre helps it grip the road, even when it's wet. - **Brakes**: Behind each wheel is a metal disc. When the driver presses the brake pedal, pads squeeze the disc, and the wheel slows down and stops. - **Frame**: The frame is the car's strong skeleton, underneath everything. The battery, the motor, the wheels and the body are all fixed to it. - **Lights**: White headlights at the front light up the road. Red lights at the back glow brighter when the car brakes, to tell the cars behind. - **Springs**: A spring above each wheel squashes and stretches over bumps, so the ride feels smooth and comfy. - **Crossing the road**: At a zebra crossing, cars stop and wait. People wait on the pavement, look both ways, and walk across when it is safe. - **Charger**: At home, a cable from the charger fills the car's battery with electricity, a bit like charging a phone. A full battery lasts for many trips. ## Getting the science right What we checked, and the myths we steer around: - The car is electric: a big flat battery pack under the floor stores the energy, and an electric motor (here at the back, turning the back wheels through two drive shafts) makes it go. There is no engine, no petrol and no exhaust pipe. - Electric cars are very quiet at low speed. Many are made to play a soft sound when they go slowly, so people walking nearby can hear them coming. - The brakes on the page are disc brakes: pads in a clamp (the calliper) squeeze a metal disc that turns with the wheel. Electric cars also slow down by running the motor backwards as a generator, which puts a little electricity back in the battery. - Seat belts: everybody wears one, every trip. Young children ride in a car seat or booster suited to their size, and the safest place for them is the back seat. - The steering wheel turns the front wheels through the steering column and a rack-and-pinion gear. - The car is a generic family car with nothing on its badge (no brand). The places are watercolour paintings Kelly made (a house with a wall charger, a country lane, a rainy American town street with a white crosswalk and a double yellow line); the car drives on the right, as in the US, and its steering wheel is on the left. - Gentle wording: the car drives "nice and slowly", stops for the crossing, and nothing goes wrong. No crashes, no speed. ## How to use it with children Watch the whole story with the sound on. At "What makes it go?", pause and trace the path with a finger: battery, motor, wheels. Then pull the car apart and find the battery, the motor and the brakes. Ask more than you tell, and let the child drive. Then step away from the screen: on a walk, stop at a crossing and practise: wait on the pavement, look both ways, listen, then cross. In the car, let the child do their own "click!" and check everyone else's belt. Count the wheels on cars, bikes and buses you pass. A few minutes together is plenty. The exhibit is a doorway to the real thing, not a replacement for it. ## Credits and licenses The real scans, maps and photographs belong to their makers, under the licenses below. The words, story and code are Curiosity's Child's. - The car: [a generic family car by mmcworks](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/mmc-generic-small-suv-car-5db696c6ed5d4bdc87905c1040fa072a) (CC BY), with nothing on its badge - Inside it: [an electric car chassis by beyond.zht](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/tesla-modelx-chassis-c33162ad8de946f98ff604017f71b2da) (CC BY): battery, motor and drive shafts - The man at the crossing: [Nathan, a real 3D-scanned person, by Renderpeople](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/nathan-animated-003-walking-3d-man-143a2b1ea5eb4385ae90a73657aca3bc) (CC BY) - The house, the country lane and the rainy street: watercolour paintings Kelly made with Grok - The light on the car: real 360° photographs from [Poly Haven](https://polyhaven.com) (CC0) - Seat belts, rain, the headlight beams and the cable are made in code - Real sounds from Freesound ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/), thank you!): [a quiet street with birds](https://freesound.org/s/135074/) (mzui), [a residential street](https://freesound.org/s/481203/) (khenshom), [an electric car driving away](https://freesound.org/s/324119/) (evsecrets), [windscreen wipers in light rain](https://freesound.org/s/171371/) (Kneedless), [a seat belt click](https://freesound.org/s/429948/) (jonnythedonkey) - Music-box tune made for this page - Narrated by Kelly, in her own voice ## More on the Things That Go shelf - [The Excavator](undefined): Dig, scoop and pour! Meet the driver, fill the dump truck, then pull the digger apart. ## About Bag of Wonder A free library of interactive 3D "look inside" science exhibits, made at Curiosity's Child, a licensed home daycare in Troy, Michigan. Secular and science-based; welcoming to all. - All exhibits and how we make them: https://bagofwonder.com/llms.txt - For grown-ups and AI assistants: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/about/ - To cite: "The Car", Bag of Wonder, Curiosity's Child (Troy, Michigan). https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/car/