Help me give my students the chance to design and build roller coasters, transforming pool noodles into winding tracks for the steel balls. The rubber balls, tuning forks, and ping pong balls will help them understand energy/motion.
My students have a love of science but a fear of math. They are respectful, polite, and friendly. They come from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from privileged to impoverished, yet all of them accept one another and work together.
The students have a range of math abilities, which means I need to make the science/math connection accessible at lots of ability levels.
Some are in advanced math classes, and some are in intensive math classes. They are aware that science and math are best friends. Science is a place where they will use their math. Even though many have said they love science, they are wary of how the math may waylay their success in science.
My Project
Energy drives all motion, yet students do not always understand the connection between the two. Generally, they have a working understanding of potential energy and kinetic energy. They know about light and sound and heat. They need more direct hands-on lab activities, however, to help them put the entire picture together of how energy converts to motion and what forces act against that motion.
Students will work on long-term cooperative projects to build roller coasters to demonstrate how potential energy transforms into kinetic energy.
They will share their projects with the younger students at our school, through a science-fair-type presentation and written reports with pictures and videos.
Before building the coasters, students will learn the basics of motion and energy using the rubber balls, ping-pong, balls, and match-box cars. They will graph the movement and calculate velocity and acceleration. They will use their knowledge to build their roller coasters.
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