Roller Coaster Madness

The students will be competing in 6 teams of 5-6 students.

Round 1: Research

Read through the following resources to understand how roller coasters work!


  1. WONDEROPOLIS
  2. LEARNER.ORG


Round 2: DESIGN

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN, FROM WHAT YOU LEARNED ABOUT ROLLER COASTERS YOU NEED TO DO THE FOLLOWING.

1. With your group design a roller coaster that a marble can complete by itself.

2. Your roller coaster needs to have at least 2 tricks (i.e. spins, loops, corkscrew, etc.)

3. If you want a lift in your roller coaster, you need to engineer a way to make the lift work WITHOUT TOUCHING THE MARBLE YOURSELF!!

4. Supplies available to you include:

          • Card Stock paper
          • Tape
          • Engineering Drawers

5. The points for your final product will be graded as follows:

          • You can earn up to 5 points for the basic roller coaster
                • 3 points for your marble completing your entire track
                • 2 points for the presentation of the roller coaster (is it neat and professional looking?)
          • In addition to this, you will earn 2 point for each "Trick" your marble completes. " Tricks could include but are not limited to:
                    • Loops
                    • Corkscrew
                    • Automated lift
                    • Funnel

Round 3: Build, test, rebuild

You have the remainder of the time to build and test and make modifications to your roller coaster. we will be judging the coasters at 2:45 on the dot!!!