Designing their own roller coasters was a challenge presented to more than 40 Weller Elementary School fourth-graders this spring. Presenting their prototypes to Silver Dollar City owner Pete Herschend gave the exercise a real-world application.
“I really like the loop here,” said Skylar Hixon.
“Yeah you can go super fast,” said Wyatt Beck, pointing to a loop in the Jungle Tour, the roller coaster model they built together. He points to a slide that goes down the green roller coaster made from recycled materials as Silver Dollar City owner Pete Herschend examines the model carefully.
“There isn’t a lot of friction there, so there’s a lot of kinetic energy,” said Beck. “So it’ll go so super fast.”
On April 20, Weller fourth-graders from two classes presented model roller coasters that they designed and developed. For more than three months, 45 students crafted their concepts, tweaking their designs as they learned more about force, motion and energy, explained lead teacher Michelle Barker.
“They’re learning how to apply those research skills in a tangible way,” said Barker. “They researched and researched, but this project has them using critical thinking skills to figure something out with a hands-on activity.”
Barker developed the project-based learning unit along with Cari Morey, another Weller fourth-grade teacher. The pair encouraged their students to push the boundaries and to design with a real audience in mind for a special showcase. And then Barker invited Herschend to evaluate and select the best roller coaster model.
“The rides the students came up with had some very creative ideas,” said Herschend. “It’s amazing to see. But what was very special to my heart was the wheelchair accessible roller coaster seat the students also came up with. That matters.”
Herschend selected two student teams as the winners of the competition: the Apple Tree and the Northern Lights roller coasters. But Herschend asked every student to stand and be recognized for their collaborative work on developing a wheelchair accessible seat for roller coasters.
“They have learned how to fix things and working through adversity,” said Morey. “Instead of shutting down and deciding they don’t know what to do when things get hard, they go and ask each other and figure out solutions. They’ve really pushed themselves to do something that was challenging and not just do it, but do it well.”
Even though they didn’t win, fourth-graders Hixon and Beck are proud of what they created together with the Jungle Tour.
“I really like the sharp turns because it gets a lot of velocity,” said Hixon. “I really liked building it and building new parts of it.”
“I really liked the decoration part of it because I’m more a decoration person,” said Beck, putting his hand on the model’s green paint. “I like to see it come together and how it looks. I’m 100% proud of it.”