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Mr. S. from PA is requesting supplies through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

Roller Coaster Design Challenge

My students need stopwatches and drinking straws in order to construct a working model Roller Coaster that utilizes a piece of foam pipe insulation and glass marble.

  • $302 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

Celebrate Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Humans all around the world love riding Roller Coasters. Your challenge is to design and construct a working model Roller Coaster that would safely provide a future rider an enjoyable ride.

The students who will be designing and constructing a Roller Coaster are seventh graders, who will be participating in their very first class of Technology Education.

When the students first come to me, they have mixed emotions ranging from total enthusiasm to great anxiety about the class. As soon as they hear, if they have not already from peers, that they will get the opportunity to design and construct a working Roller Coaster, these emotions quickly turn into excitement and anticipation. The type of school that I teach in is a growing sub-urban/urban district just outside of a large city. Most of the students come to me with little to no hands-on experience when dealing with hand tools, let alone power tools. The Roller Coaster gives them an opportunity to be successful and build confidence in themselves regarding their manual dexterity, preparing them for a more rigorous use of machinery in following years of Technology Education.

My Project

The Roller Coaster Design Challenge utilizes common and relatively inexpensive materials such as straws, foam pipe insulation, masking tape, and hot glue. The straws are glued together to form structures or towers that will hold the foam pipe insulation in place, with tape as a heat barrier to avoid melting the foam. Then, a marble is used as the car or train in order to test and see if the Roller Coaster is successful. The students are taught four basic scientific principles that deal with Roller Coasters; Potential Energy, Kinetic Energy, Inertia, and Friction. Although there are a lot more forces acting upon the marble during its travels, focusing on a few helps solidify the students’ understanding, rather than throwing all of the forces at them. The stop watches are used to time the marble’s travel, in order to determine an average velocity. In summary, I am requesting straws that will be used for the construction of the Roller Coaster, as well as a set of stopwatches.

The Roller Coaster provides students with a first time experience of Technology Education.

Students understand and relate to Roller Coasters, and the amount of enjoyment that they offer humans. This project motivates students to apply what they have learned in Tech. Ed., as well as Math, English, Science, History, and more. The students then begin to understand and appreciate the importance of each class. This begins to develop a holistic student, one who will be better prepared for life.

Mr. S.
Grades 6-8

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Where Your Donation Goes

Materials Cost Quantity Total
Straws Wrapped 7.75" Pack500 • Sargent-Welch $7.79 20 $155.80
Stopwatch - Multi-Function • Sargent-Welch $12.47 5 $62.35

Materials cost

$218.15

Vendor shipping charges

FREE

Sales tax

$0.00

3rd party payment processing fee

$3.27

Fulfillment labor & materials

$35.00

Total project cost

$256.42

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$45.25

Total project goal

$301.67

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

$301.67

11 Donors

-$297.96

Donations toward project cost

-$256.42

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$41.54

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$3.71

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

$0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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Project Activity

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