Seventh-grade students at Roslyn Middle School designed and constructed elaborate paper roller coasters—part of a lesson about energy transformation. Working in groups, students were tasked with building roller coasters that transformed potential energy into kinetic energy with gravity acting on a marble.
A total of 75 roller coasters were constructed. Students had a chance to view each other’s work during a two-day science carnival—held February 16-17, 2022. Each coaster had a creative theme, such as: Ride the Wave, The HeartBreak Tower, and The Four Seasons. Students sent marbles down each rollercoaster to test their construction, then voted for three top spots.
Prizes were given as follows: Most Thrilling The Bird House: created by Claire Kim, Vivian Lin, Jasmine Wang, and Nicoletta Babic.
Most Creative The Tree of Dreams: created by Sydney Gerber, Courtney Liu, Carina Dai, and Annabelle Luty.
Most Likely to be Built at 6 Flags The Abandoned: created by Mara Schwartz, Blake Anscher, Abigail Cohen, and Riley Ritchie.
“It was an incredible experience watching the students build their roller coasters from the ground up,” said science teacher Ali Sparaco, who planned the lesson with fellow science teachers Jenna Ruber, Hanna Greenfield, Annmarie Covino, and Brian Hoffner. “The students took the concepts they learned in class and really brought them to life. They were also very excited to see all the designs that their classmates came up with. As their teacher I couldn’t be any prouder and I wouldn’t be surprised if we had a future roller coaster engineer in our school!”
