Zombie Roller Coaster

PROCESS

Students will work in teams of 3 to 4 in order to design and understand how a roller coaster works.  You will explore given websites in order to be able to understand content.  You will use this content to answer questions given to you.  The teams will be broken down into 3 different sections and each will be assigned to a member of the group.  That member(s) responsibility is to become a specialist in their given area.  The group as a whole will make a virtual model of their roller coaster, an actual model, and a presentation to show your government officials (class).

This will require teamwork in order to reach your given goal to save humanity in North America.

Specialists

In your assigned groups choose a specialization based on your interests.  Remember that you will share your research with the rest of the team before building a model roller coaster.  Once you have chosen your roles, complete the research assigned that role, which will help in the completion of your individual tasks. 

Physicists

This person will be interested in knowing how things work.  This will be challenging and will require abstract thinking.

Questions to answer: (Write a short summary response to answer questions.)

1)How does a roller coaster work? What kind of energy does it use?

2) What does friction have to do with roller coasters?

http://www.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/coaster.html - This site talks about what friction does for a roller coaster.  It also talks about what kinetic and potential energy have to do with it.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/structural/roller-coaster.htm - On page 4 of this website it will explain what kinetic and potential energy have to do with roller coasters.  On that same page it will also show you a video to give you a better idea of what these two forms of energy do.

This person is interested in history, and how things came to be.

Questions to answer: (Write a short summary response to answer questions.)

1) Give a brief summary of the roller coasters history.

http://www.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/coaster2.html - This site will give you a brief history of roller coasters in America. 

http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/structural/roller-coaster.htm - On page 2 of this site, it gives a more broad world history of roller coasters and also another history of American roller coasters.

This person should be interested in building stuff.

Questions to answer: (Write a short summary response to answer questions.)

1) What are the different materials roller coasters have been made out of throughout its history?

2) List your top 5 roller coasters.   What makes them exciting to you?

3) Draw a concept roller coaster to present to your team.  If agreed upon, then make a virtual model of it.

 http://www.learner.org/exhibits/parkphysics/coaster.html - This site gives a comparison between wood and steel roller coasters.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/structural/roller-coaster.htm - On page 3 of this site, it talks about the different components of roller coasters.