Antique marbles and paper roller coasters came together for a hands-on lesson in kinetic energy and motion earlier this month at Summit Academy Akron Secondary School. The seven students in Intervention Specialist Robin Bishop’s class who participated in the STEM project were each tasked with creating a paper roller coaster designed to carry a released marble through its curves, loop, hill and straight shoots.
The students used marbles dating back some 100 years and collected by Bishop’s late grandfather. He gathered them from the ground where they had fallen from freight cars that were transporting them from a nearby West Virginia marble factory. The glass spheres brought a little history lesson and nostalgia to
the science-focused curriculum.
As Bishop offered junior Kamaren Stacy his pick of the marbles from the palm of her hand, she asked him what he learned in the process of configuring and fine-tuning his roller coaster.
“I learned a lot more about myself and that I have patience,” says Stacy, who added that overall, constructing the roller coaster came easy to him, so much so that he helped some of his classmates with theirs.
The one-and-a-half-week lesson began as students cut out the parts of their roller coasters from construction paper. They then laid the pieces flat and in the order in which they would tape them together.
“Getting the marble to roll through the loop meant angling the paper in a way that kinetic energy would continue to move the marble along hills and curves where friction slowed down energy,” Bishop explains.
The students met challenges — such as determining the placement of the structure’s loop and assessing where to launch the marble in relationship to the coaster’s shoot — head-on, says Bishop. She adds that every student’s marble cleared at least three-fourths of
their coaster, and one successfully whirled through the entire structure. Dubbed The Super Speedster, Super Breath, The Interesting One and Super Short among others, the paper amusement rides lived up to their names.
Besides providing a deeper understanding of kinetic energy, the project imparted a sense of accomplishment to the students.
“The end goal was mainly for students to see a project that they completed and that they can be proud of,” Bishop says. “The excitement on their faces was awesome, especially when they showed others what they had created. They were so proud of what they have done.”