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The Roller Coaster Project

Journal Entry September 6th and 7th 2004   Photos

Set-Up and Materials:

Justine: The materials we used to build our roller-coaster, was masking tape, scissors, the wall, and tubing. A couple problems we faced when we built it, was that sometimes there wasn't any friction between the tube and the marble, and the marble wouldn't slide, instead it just fell.

Morgan: Some people also used pencils as you can see in one of the pictures. Another problem was that when the marble was going so fast while going straight that when a group made it go down so immediately, that the marble kept on going and jumped straight into the air.

Fred: Different groups had different Ideas, it was really just a matter of learning from your mistakes. For materials it was better to keep it simple, but in the set-ups, you could go wild. For a good roller-coaster to go well you need a good start. Groups choose from hanging from the walls to hanging from the whiteboard. This project was really fun. 

Creating the Roller Coaster:

Appana: We bended the tube to create the curves and taped extra tubes to make it longer. Every time we finished a part we needed to test it because we weren't a hundred percent sure that it would work. If it didn't work we needed to find a way to fix it or had to change it. So we were making then testing then started to make another part.

Takuma: To make the roller coasters we first had to bend the tubes that were made out of plastic things. Then we made ideas and we tested them out if it really worked. We all had different ideas of making the roller coasters. We also used different materials as well.

James: How we made our roller coasters was we first bend the tubes into shapes like loops or twists. Then we'd make something crazy like a giant loop. If that didn't work we'd make the shape or loop smaller or shorter. Most of the time they didn't work but when they did it was fun to watch our roller coaster.

Trying the Roller Coaster

Skip: When our group tested the roller coaster it didn't work at first. we had to keep on sending the marble down and adjust the tubes a little each time. We had the same problem a lot and had to get every thing in exactly the right spot. Also we had to let the marble go from the right spot and at the right speed. Some times we had to give it a push and others let it go from very low. Our roller coaster never completely worked all of the way because it wasn't all of the way done but we were able to help other groups to get theirs to work by helping to adjust their roller coaters during the test trials.  

Alex: Whenever we made a loop or something like that, We had to try just that part. Many times, it didn't work and we made slight changes. Sometimes the ideas didn't work at all because, after a run, we would find something wrong and fix it. After that, we would run it again but we would find something else to fix. It took many tries to actually have something work on our roller-coaster. If we actually did get something right, we would put it on the rest. We would then try our roller-coaster to see if there are any flaws in the joints between the stunts. It was very frustrating after many of the runs, but in the end I was happy with what we made.

Pages maintained by jerwin@asij.ac.jp  Original Course Design John Mikton & Derrel Fincher  Course Facilitation: jerwin@asij.ac.jp Monday August 29, 2005