End of the Year Activity - Roller Coaster Unit

Desperado, Nitro & Goliath are just a few of the roller coasters students learned about on the last 2 1/2 days of school.   This thematic unit (designed by a teacher, Lovin' Lit,  from Louisiana as a 7 hour plan for subs) included activities that related to all areas of the curriculum from reading non-fiction articles, recording and analyzing statistics, using map skills, to comparing and contrasting kinetic & potential energy.

Videos and pictures of roller coasters were used to engage students.  Sharing their war stories about being on a roller coaster helped them make connections.  Then following directions students slowly created a lap book using the information about the roller coasters.   They made bar graphs, learned about energy through this song.  The final activity was to build their own roller coaster using simple materials.  The designs were unique and many worked.  I believe if we had more time - ALL of them would have completed the challenge.



 As the temperatures remained high during the day, so did the level of engagement.  At the end of the activity, students were encouraged to visit our eBoard site to design their own roller coasters via these internet program:

Build A Coaster - by Discovery Kids

Design  Your Own Roller Coaster  - by Annenberg Learner (Part of the Amusement Park Physics)

Roller Coaster Games - by Roller Coaster Games Online (ads on this site)

It was a great way to end the school year.