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  • Home
    • The E³ Experience
    • About E³
    • E³ Planning Team
    • Sponsors
    • Our LOGO
    • Become a Sponsor
  • Resources
    • SCHEDULE
    • Building for Success
    • Teamwork
    • E³ FAQs
    • Getting Started
  • Past Competitions
    • 2020 Competitions >
      • Team Torches
      • EGGstreme High Dive
      • Olympic Propulsion
      • Triathlon
      • Floor Performance
    • 2016 The Longest Ride
    • 2016 Egg Drop Challenge
    • 2016 Vehicle Safety Challenge
    • 2017 TEAM FLAGS
    • Planetary Rover
    • Space Shelter
    • Egg Drop
  • Gallery
    • 2019 Gallery
    • 2017 Gallery
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THE LONGEST RIDE

The 2016 1st Place Trophy goes to ... Green Valley Elementary School's The Hungry Wolves ! Thanks for showcasing your  STEM excellence!
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2nd Place goes to...Oak Mountain Intermediate School's
​Extraordinary Engineers.
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3rd Place goes to...Helena Intermediate School's Momentum Madness.
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           Students will incorporate what they know about roller coaster physics, planning, decision making, problem solving, budgeting, managing time, communicating, and collaborating to  design and construct (from mystery materials) a roller coaster with the goal of creating the longest ride.  *NOTE Longest ride time NOT length.

           While this is an on-the-spot challenge, there are a number of ways teams can prepare so they can be successful on  E³challenge day, December 9, 2016. At the bottom of this page, there are a number of resources to help your team develop skills, knowledge, and understanding of the concepts needed for this challenge.  The resources provided are simply a springboard; feel free to create your own activities or research other options.

Look below for resources to help you prepare your teams.
Alabama Course of Study Science Standards Alignment

Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

3:1  Plan and carry out an experiment to determine the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object using one variable at a time, including number, size, direction, speed, position, friction, or air resistance (e.g., balanced forces pushing from both sides on an object, such as a box, producing no motion; unbalanced force on one side of an object, such as a ball, producing motion), and communicate these findings graphically.
3:2 Investigate, measure, and communicate in a graphical format how an observed pattern of motion (e.g., a child swinging in a swing, a ball rolling back and forth in a bowl, two children teetering on a see-saw, a model vehicle rolling down a ramp of varying heights, a pendulum swinging) can be used to predict the future motion of an object.
5:7 Design and conduct a test to modify the speed of a falling object due to gravity (e.g., constructing a parachute to keep an attached object from breaking).*​
Energy
4:1 Use evidence to explain the relationship of the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
8:9  Use Newton’s second law to demonstrate and explain how changes in an object’s motion depend on the sum of the external forces on the object and the mass of the object (e.g., billiard balls moving when hit with a cue stick).
8:14 Use models to construct an explanation of how a system of objects may contain varying types and amounts of potential energy (e.g., observing the movement of a roller coaster cart at various inclines, changing the tension in a rubber band, varying the number of batteries connected in a series, observing a balloon with static electrical charge being brought closer to a classmate’s hair).
Physics 
Construct models that illustrate how energy is related to work performed on or by an object and explain how different forms of energy are transformed from one form to another

(e.g., distinguishing between kinetic, potential, and other forms of energy such as thermal and sound; applying both the work-energy theorem and the law of conservation of energy to systems such as roller coasters, falling objects, and spring-mass systems; discussing the effect of frictional forces on energy conservation and how it affects the motion of an object).

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HELPFUL RESOURCES TO HELP YOUR TEAM PREPARE:

SCIENCE CONCEPTS/ SKILLS

  • Newton's Second Law of Motion
  • ​acceleration, placement,velocity
  • momentum
  • kinetic energy
  • gravitational potential energy
  • force
  • friction
  • ​gravity

MATH CONCEPTS / SKILLS

  • operations and algebraic thought
  • measurement and data
  • geometry
  • budgeting money

LESSONS/ACTIVITIES/
​INTERACTIVES


Education World 
National Geographic : The Jason Project
Discovery Kids: build-a-coaster
Funderstanding: Roller Coaster Game
PBS Kids: roller coaster design
PBS Kids:coaster
PBS Kids:Poster Coaster Design Squad
​Teach Engineering: Building Roller Coasters


DOWNLOADS
roller_coaster_science_activity.pdf
File Size: 764 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

VIDEOS

Design Squad: Roller Coasters 
Science Channel: Roller Coaster Videos

DragonflyTV Episodes: Matter and Motion Roller Coaster Design PBS KIDS GO!
Steel Dragon 2000: POV World's Longest Roller Coaster Nagashima Spaland Japan
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What teachers are saying...
"On the spot competitions are exciting and really challenge students to problem solve and think creatively."

"My students actually worked together and for the first time recognized  not only the importance of teamwork, but also the characteristics needed to be a team player."

"On the way to U of M yesterday, Amanda overheard two young gentlemen discussing where they would go to college. One young man was probably not one to have had that discussion before yesterday."


"The campus was beautiful and my students were able to experience engaging STEM activities and get a small taste of campus life." 

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