Raceways & Rollercoasters – Super Coasters

Opening Discussion

Ask your students if they have ever been on a roller coaster before. Have a volunteer draw on the board or on chart paper a line drawing representing the path a roller coaster might take. Ask your students where on the path they think the roller coaster car is traveling quickly, and where on the path it is traveling less quickly. You could also have your students brainstorm a list of words that describe what it’s like to be on a roller coaster.

The Challenge

Use everything you learned about loops, jumps and hills and build a super roller coaster!  There are a few rules – the marble must make it to the end of the track, the roller coaster must have at least 1 loop, and the marble has to leave and rejoin the track at least once (meaning it should be in the air at some point!). This sounds tough, but be creative and remember what you learned in the earlier Raceways sessions!

Doing the Activity

1. Group your students into teams of 3 for this activity.
2. Hand out the materials to each team and either have them choose a space to work or assign spaces. Remember that each team is now getting 12 feet of track – four 3-foot sections or two 6-foot sections.
3. Teams should feel free to use anything available to them in the room and should attach their tracks (using the tape) to chairs, desks or the wall, whatever they’d like – encourage creativity! Just to make sure that their track stands on its own without any team members needing to hold it up.
4. Have each team begin experimenting with making their roller coasters. While they are building, your job is to check in on each team and ask them questions about their process.

Let’s Talk About It

After 10-15 minutes, stop your students and bring them together to share their observations with each other. What is easy and what is difficult? Does anyone have any suggestions for the other teams on how to make a successful roller coaster? This discussion should last no more than 5-10 minutes.

Build On What They Talked About

Have teams continue to make their roller coasters. At the end of the session, when all teams are done, bring all of the teams together to share their results. Have each team show off their roller coaster, and ask them to tell the other teams about something that they changed about what they created during the session. Then, have them roll a marble down the track. If the marble doesn’t make it to the end, let them keep trying until they have a successful run. If they are unable to achieve a successful run after several attempts, ask if any of the other teams have any suggestions for things that the reporting team might change, have them make a change and then try rolling again – stay with it until they are successful!