“I like building something and seeing if it works and then if it doesn’t, trying to fix it,” said Izzy. She worked with her partner Elsie to perfect their roller coaster project.
Martha Thorne teaches the sixth-grade physics of roller coasters class. She said it’s a good example of hands-on learning for her students. During the class, students learn about physics and the forces of motion. Before they started building, they studied different types of roller coasters so they could better understand how they worked.
Using Roller Coaster Engineering kits, they moved step-by-step through a series of building projects. They started with a simple slope and measured how far the roller coaster car traveled up one side of the slope and back down the other. They changed the slope to see how that affected the car’s movement. They added weights to the cars to test if that made an impact. The more they built and tested, the more they learned about physics.
Students say they enjoy the hands-on learning. Hendrix was busy putting extra braces on his track after learning it needed more stabilization for the car. “I think it’s fun we get to build and then test the coasters. It seemed kind of hard at first, but once you get it, it’s a lot of fun.”
Auden said he liked “everything” about the class. His partner, Lincoln, agreed. “It’s like building with Legos and I love Legos. It’s a fun class and it’s fun figuring out how to make things work.”
Thorne said she enjoyed watching how the students work together. “If one group is struggling with something another group will come over and show them what they did and how it helped their project. It’s a lot of troubleshooting and trying different things over and over and they did a really nice job with their final coasters.”