Marble Roller Coasters
I am in addition to therefore blessed to hold upward married to a instructor because my husband doesn't fifty-fifty bat an oculus when I inquire him to exercise things similar purchase me merely about vi human foot long pieces of piping insulation at Lowe's. Note to self: selection a non-windy 24-hour interval to travail in addition to convey this into the building!
Shaun besides picked me upward a brace of bags of marbles at Dollar Tree.
Can you lot estimate what these are going to become?
Here's the start hint. They can't hold upward used as-is. They involve to hold upward cutting inwards one-half to brand 2 long pieces.
One side of the piping insulation is already scored. This is easily cutting amongst pair of scissors or a box knife. I flora that it was easier to role pair of scissors to cutting the residuum of the piping insulation inwards half.
Each slice of insulation is 6 feet long. My married adult man ended upward paying $1.18 for each slice which volition brand 12 feet of tubing i time cutting inwards half. These one-half pieces are perfect for making roller coasters for marbles.
I used this marble roller coaster action to boot off our give-and-take of kinetic in addition to potential liberate energy inwards physical science. Each grouping received i vi human foot slice of tubing in addition to i marble. Using solely these materials in addition to tape, each grouping had to exercise a roller coaster that included i loop.
Naturally, none of the designs worked perfectly the start time. Students had to work solve in addition to refine their designs. Once students had a one-loop roller coaster that was working successfully, that grouping earned a mo slice of tubing. This tubing came amongst the challenge to brand a two-loop roller coaster. When they had met this goal, they were given the challenge of making a coaster amongst 3 loops. They expected to hold upward given a tertiary slice of tubing amongst this challenge, but I made them exercise the 3 loops amongst solely the 12 feet of tubing they already had.
My students speedily figured out that the marble needed to get quite high higher upward the loops. They were discussing potential liberate energy without fifty-fifty realizing it! I besides overheard students discussing how the loops needed to acquire progressively smaller. Hello, kinetic energy!
This actually was the perfect means to larn what my students already knew/believed well-nigh energy. I would similar to formalize this action to a greater extent than inwards the future. I'm withal waiting to acquire my scores dorsum to meet if I passed my chemical scientific discipline certification test.
Here are merely about pictures of the roller coasters they created:
The i work I've flora amongst this action is that I don't know how to shop my tubing for futurity roller coasters. The best I've flora in addition to therefore far is this cardboard box that my hanger hampers (affiliate link) came inwards from Amazon. The box is solely well-nigh 3 feet tall, though.
