By: Lera Schmeink
Carlyle High School students in Jill Crump’s physical science class built roller coasters
during the last week of April.
Students worked in groups of two or three to build a rollercoaster using two six-foot pipe
insulations, masking tape, a marble, and a cup.
Each rollercoaster was required to contain one drop off, one hill, and one loop.
The marble had to go through the drop off, hill, and loop, then land in a cup at the end of
the coaster.
The purpose of this lab was for students to determine the gravitational potential energy of
the marble at different points on the coaster.
“I had a lot of fun building the rollercoaster,” said Benson Schmeink.
Students then built a giant roller coaster that wrapped around Crump’s whole room using
all of the pipe insulation on May 2.