Roller Coaster Research

Students look at the board where I have a poster of a basic roller coaster outline an enlarged version of the worksheet they will use). I have terms, such as:

1. Potential Energy
2. Kinetic Energy
3. Force of Gravity:
4. Energy Transfer

I tell students they will need to think about, where in the roller coaster system, these terms will come into play. Students will receive their own copy of the worksheet to fill out during research time, and we will use the class poster during our debrief time.

I tell students that they may look at their notes from Roller Coaster Design – Day 1, where they worked through the “How Stuff Works” module. They should discuss where these 4 factors come into play in their design. In order to keep the marble rolling, student engineers will need to ensure that there is enough potential energy to convert into kinetic energy to allow for energy transfer and to get the marble to the end of the roller coaster.

I remind students that they can provide potential energy throughout the system. I ask them how we might do this in the design (I want students to suggest adding humps in their design to provide opportunity for the marble to regain momentum again).

Before I release them to work ion groups, I remind them that the biggest difference between their design and a real roller coaster will be the lack of chain lift at the beginning. Marble rollercoasters will need to start at a high point.

Students will work together to label their roller coaster worksheets. They will define the terms on the worksheet so that they can justify their labels. Students can use the labels for more than one place in the roller coaster. When we reconvene as a class, each group will need to justify their labels.