Under the instruction of their teacher, Jennifer Nicholas, seventh grade students at Girard Intermediate School took up the entire gymnasium on May 10 to demonstrate gravity and energy.
Teams of students used whatever materials they could find to build roller coasters that would take a ball bearing up and down at least two hills from a starting pipe of no more than 100 centimeters high. The object was to get the bearing through the entire device and out of the other end without it stopping somewhere in the middle.
''Students are judged on how they cooperate with one another, critical thinking and creativity,'' Nicholas said. ''All those things combined as well as making their roller coasters work.''
Tom McHenry, 13, puts the finishing touches on his roller coaster before demonstrating his project to the judges. Following guidelines assigned by their teacher, Jennifer Nicholas, students ran a ball bearing through the coaster tubes, up and down hills and back out while answering questions about energy.
Using everything from duct tape and wooden dowel rods to foam noodles, the students created coasters that pushed their ball bearing through twists and turns and loops and hills while they learned about energy and energy transformation.
''They are having so much fun, they don't even realize they are using everything they've learned,'' Nicholas said.
Junior and senior students and parent volunteers waded through the maze of roller coasters carrying clipboards and taking notes while the seventh-graders demonstrated their projects. The project was part of the students' final grades in science, Nicholas said.
Parents also helped by bringing in supplies the students could use, Nicholas said.
''The parents were wonderful,'' she said, ''and the kids are great too because they never give up.''