Summary
Over the course of a month, students engage in a physics unit where they learned about what happens when an object goes into motion and how that object is able to move. This unit had various topics that students learned about such as basics of motion, distance and displacement, speed and velocity, acceleration, energy, forces, and Newton's three laws of motion. To thoroughly understand and get a deep learning of these topics, students were assigned to complete worksheets, documents, and labs for each topic. Once all the hard work was done, the last step is a fun project that allows students to create their own roller coaster. When putting together the roller coasters, students needed to review their knowledge of each topic when calculating the physics of their roller coaster.
Backward-Looking
Students started off this physics unit by completing worksheets, documents, and labs on each topic. Depending on the score that students received for these assignments, they were given a correlating amount of coins.These coins come in handy for the final part of this unit. The final step of this unit is a project where students build their own roller coaster. Students were put into groups of four to complete this project. The amount of coins earned earlier were accumulated together to let groups know how much materials they were able to buy for their roller coaster. My group first created a sketch of our vision for what we wanted our roller coaster to look like. Then we bought the amount of materials we needed in order to make this design a reality. The materials my group bought were twelve feet of piping for our track, one wooden dowel to hold our roller coaster up, hot glue/tape to hold it together, and a marble as our cart. As my team put each aspect of our roller coaster together, we constantly tested our design by running the marble down the course to make sure that it stayed on the track. In addition, these tests helped us ensure that there was enough acceleration for the marble to go through each loop, turn, and hill properly. Once we were satisfied with our roller coaster, we calculated the speed/velocity, distance and displacement, kinetic and potential energy, and acceleration. At this time we also labeled where the topics we had studied, took place on the coaster.
Inward-Looking
I feel proud of this piece of work that my group and I have built. The reason for this feeling is because my group was able to create a roller coaster that actually works and is consistently functional. The marble is able to go through the course without falling off the track and the marble is able to go through each loop, turn, and hill with enough acceleration. In addition, my group has made a roller coaster that I would actually enjoy and want to ride if it were to be life size. I enjoy how it has the thrill factor with the speed and actions of the course. However although I enjoy this roller coaster that my group created, there are a couple of things that I don't particularly enjoy. The first dislike being that our roller coaster doesn't have any theme. Most roller coasters in real life have a theme to make it look interesting, yet my group didn't have enough time to decorate our roller coaster. The second dislike I have is that our roller coaster isn't very sturdy. When we run the marble down the course, the coaster shakes a bit and requires on a certain type of lighter marble in order for it to work. If the marble is heavier, it will weigh down the track and fall of.
Outward-Looking
The roller coaster my group made is somewhat different than the roller coasters that other groups made. My group did not design our roller coaster the way other groups designed theirs. Although all roller coasters were different, some were more alike than others. Most groups started their roller coaster off with a vertical loop after the drop. However, my group decided to start our roller coaster off with a horizontal loop that kind of resembles a spring, after the drop. The other difference is that my group's roller coaster had two loops in a row while other groups designed their roller coasters to have only one loop. The last difference is that my group stopped our marble different than other groups. We folded our piping into itself to create a cave like end. Then we stuck a wad of tape in the cave that abruptly stopped the marble as the coaster came to an end. An obvious similarity between my group's roller coaster and the other coasters is that all groups made their coasters out of the same type of materials. These materials included the Styrofoam piping, wooden dowels, a board as a base, hot glue, tape, and a marble. Another similarity is that all groups had to include a loop, turn, and drop in their roller coaster and all groups were forced to start with a big drop to create enough acceleration for the marble to go through the course.
Forward-Looking
As I look at my group's roller coaster, there are a few things that I would like to improve upon. As I've stated before, our roller coaster has no theme. This is crucial because without any decoration to the roller coaster, it takes away any attraction or interesting factor to our coaster. As of now, the roller coaster is just plain and quite boring. When we first designed this roller coaster, my group based it off of the idea of traveling places in different areas of the world. This idea gave us the name, "Around the world in three seconds". We wanted to include a Styrofoam ball that we would paint to look like the Earth, in the center of the base as the coaster loops around it. However, we decided to drop this idea as we realized we didn't have enough time to execute this design. In addition, we didn't want to spend extra money on the outside materials that it required. Yet now that I see the final product, I wish that my group stuck to this idea or at least gave it a theme and attempted to decorate it. The next thing that I would improve is making the roller coaster more sturdy. I wish that my group gave more support to our roller coaster by gluing more dowels to hold it to the base. Since we didn't do this, our coaster can only handle the lighter marble and even then it shakes when we run the light marble down the track.
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