Kids coast through science

By ELISE FRANCO

Pupils learn about potential and kinetic energy by drawing blueprints and building their roller coasters.

GIRARD — Forget Cedar Point. When it comes to roller coasters, the Girard Junior High School gymnasium was the place to be Friday afternoon.

More than 200 seventh-graders gathered to show off roller coaster science projects they’ve been working on for the past four weeks.

Jennifer Nicholas, their science teacher, started the roller coaster expo last year as a way to help her pupils learn the ins and outs of potential and kinetic energy.

“They love it,” she said. “They would walk into class every day and ask, ‘Are we working on them today?’”

Nicholas said the teams’ coasters are judged by the other seventh-grade teachers, and each coaster is judged twice.

“The judges ask them questions about how their coaster works, and they have to answer based on what they know about kinetic and potential energy,” she said.

The kids also must describe to the judges where each of the energies is the greatest and how the energy changes as the ball goes along the track.

To earn the full 60 points, each coaster must have a starting height of no more than 100 centimeters, at least two hills, one loop and one curve. Each group is also asked questions to determine how they worked together as a team.

Kelsey Snyder and Alyssa McClimans made a tough decision about their coaster, which was made of pipe insulation and duct tape.

“We called it The Disaster because we couldn’t get it to work right,” McClimans said. “We couldn’t get the loop or the curve.”

Snyder said they chose to leave off both the loop and curve because of that.

“If the coaster doesn’t work, it’s minus 10 points, but for every element missing is minus three,” she said. “We decided to take the six instead of 10.”

Despite problems at first, the girls were able to get their coaster up and running for the judges, and they said the process of trial and error was the best part of the project.

All the materials used to construct the coasters were things pupils brought from home. Foam piping, duct tape, plastic building blocks and clear tubing were among things used to create their finished products. Nicholas attributes this to the help of her pupils’ parents.

“They gave us so much stuff,” Nicholas said. “I literally had piping coming out of the ceiling in my classroom.”

Andrew Saxon, seventh-grade language arts teacher and judge, said the teams were as competitive as they were knowledgeable. “I had teams try to bribe me with cookies and candy,” he said, laughing. “A minute ago, I pulled a $20 out of my pocket and joked that one of the kids gave it to me.”

Saxon wasn’t the only judge collecting goodies from the pupils. Seventh-grade math teacher Mike DelBene said he was given a Snickers candy bar. Of course, the so-called bribery was all in good fun.

DelBene, whose classroom is right across the hall from Nicholas’, said the kids were excited and the expo this year was much better than last.

“There were less coasters this year, so we were able to talk more with the kids,” he said. “You can tell they’re learning just by the answers they were giving.”

Nicholas said she plans to continue this project and hopes it will lead to participation in Youngstown State University’s Lake-to-River Science Fair.

“Right now we don’t have a science fair here at Girard,” she said. “But I’d really like to be able to do that and get us to YSU.”

Louise Mason, principal at Girard Junior High School, had nothing but good things to say about the project.

“It’s such a great hands-on project for the kids,” she said, “and it really lets them use what they’ve learned in the classroom.”