Design A Roller Coaster
Use your engineering skills to design and create a “loop-de-loop“ roller coaster that will take a marble for a ride.
In this activity, youth will use their engineering skills to work together to design and create a “loop-de-loop“ roller coaster that will take a marble for a ride!
Learning Objectives as Purposeful Questions:
- What do gravity and friction have to do with building a roller coaster?
- In your roller coaster design, where did the marble have the most potential energy? Kinetic Energy?
- What skills do you think Engineers need if they are going to design roller coasters?
Materials Per Group:
- Long foam tubes (1/2” diameter) about 6 feet long cut in half, one half per group
- 4 Marbles – different materials, such as glass, wooden, metal
- Plastic cup – to catch the marbles as they come down the track!
- Masking Tape – Challenge: The tape can act as “money,” giving each group a certain amount.
- Paper, pencils, pen and paper for design
- Optional – Stands with clamps to hold tubes and add height