Summer fun. It is the absolute best. Whether you visit Six Flags, Kings Island, a Disney Park, Busch Gardens, or another amusement park, the looping lines of roller coasters offer the perfect lens for getting students to interact with STEM concepts. An old garden hose, duct tape, and a marble: the only materials that you need to build a roller coaster. Cut the hose in half, and then duct tape the two segments together down the back to create a nice groove where the two hoses meet for the marble to ride, on top. Then the materials are ready for students to explore the potential and kinetic energy of roller coasters.
Building Momentum
Not all students are able to experience and marvel the ride of a roller coaster, so build some background knowledge. Ask your students about their experiences with roller coasters. Provide pictures, literature, and even personal stories to set the stage for the lesson. Ask questions to prompt discussions about what they do know about roller coasters.
The next task is to explore the energy and mathematics behind what makes a roller coaster work. This video does a nice job of introducing students to considering the conversion of energy as the fundamental magic of a functioning roller coaster. Get students to see this magic, or physics, in action by having groups of students use potential and kinetic energy to get their marble (train/car) from one end of the garden hose to the other end. Group members should act as supports, and one person should be the conductor who releases the marble. The conductor's role can rotate between group members. This first construction should not involve a loop. Once a group has successfully created a coaster that works, the team should draw it, measure the heights, and label the heights on their drawing.
Adding Challenge
Next, create challenge by having groups add one or more loops to their design. This step is difficult, but not impossible. It takes most of the participants' hands to hold the hose while they calculate just how to get the potential energy needed for the marble to successfully travel the loop(s). Once again, when each group has mastered the task by getting the marble from one end to the other, they should record their design and measurements.
Comparing and analyzing the different designs during class offers the opportunity for critical thinking (through analysis and comparison) and positive discourse about the strengths and challenges of different approaches. Groups might even consider pitching their designs or ideas to an amusement park.
Finally, let the students apply what they know by building virtual roller coasters. The Jason Project, sponsored by the National Geographic Society, provides an easy-to-use website where students can work individually or in pairs to try additional variables within roller coaster building, such as adding cars, multiple hills, and valleys. Students should also discuss findings from their virtual roller coaster designs and compare what they learned on-line to their practical lesson in class.
Learning Transformed
Building roller coasters brings a little bit of summer fun into the classroom, while challenging students to engage with several content standards. STEM education incorporates science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to solve authentic problems (Labov, Reid, & Yamamoto, 2010; Sanders, 2009). The push for STEM education opens the door to a different kind of learning experience, one that allows students to manipulate content in 3D, test ideas, and innovate. It's a departure from the traditional lecture learning of the past, and an approach that opens the door to possibilities, problem solving, and progressive integration of subjects. Thrill seekers wanted.