Jeremy Cobb

My roller coaster was really fun to make and was not at all very difficult. I did run into some troubles on the way though, but I learned how to fix them. The first thing we did was go out to Lowe's to get some of our supplies. We got a 2' by 4' board to use as the base. I wanted a bigger coaster because I didn't think the 1' by 3' was big enough. Then I went to find the tubing. We got everything we needed from there exept the green turf, so we used spray paint instead. Once we got all of our supplies, we spray painted the board green and the wooden dowels yellow. We let them dry and then glue the dowels on with wood glue, but we had to screw in the tall one because it was wobbly. After that, we found these little black holders that we used to string the tubing. We glued them at first, but then we ran into a problem. the tubing had so mauch torque that it popped the holder right off. So then we did it again with some yellow tape along with the glue. It seemed to stay on this time. So we started to make the loop. This was very tricky because the tubing wanted to go its own direction. It was so strong that it ripped the entire dowel off the board. We had to think of something else because it was going to stay. This was a challenge for me. I thought all the next day school. when My mom came home from work, she had cork that she had in her office. I thought it was a briliant idea. It would hold it down. It was a little bit big, but we fixed that by taping four popcycle sticks to it and sticking it in there. But there was still a problem. The ball wouldn't always go up the second hill. I found out at school when we had to take it in, that the reason it didn't go over every time was because there was a little space between the loop and the second hill where the track wasn't spported. So when I let the ball down I suported it with my hand and it went over every time. I was really happy with the way my roller coaster turned out. Even though I had a few problems, I got a chance to fix them and it really taught me a lot about physics.

Bennett Artman

My roller coaster project wasn't particularly difficult during the construction process. A friend's father provide much of the materials I would need. He gave me a piece of plywood and an industrial glue gun from his shop which I immediately put to use. With the glue gun I attached the dowels for the first drop, after letting them dry I attached some of the polyetheline tubing with duct tape for the track. I then tested loop heights to follow the drop of the coaster. I used my ball bearing to test the height, and when I was done I made a short distance of track to finsh the coaster. I then made two slits in my tubing. In these slits I placed fake credit card pieces for stopping and starting gates. When I was done with the technical work I got on the computer to type a key and my name. I printed these out and mounted them onto the coaster base while also mounting the labels. I did not find this hard, but I did think it took a while. It was a dreaded project, but turned out to be fun.

Assignment #2: Roller Coaster Project

How is Your Roller Coaster Project Going?

For this post I want you to write 3-5 sentences about your project. What has been difficult? easy? surprising? Did you have any problems?  How did you solve them? How many changes did you make from your original design?  What have you learned along the way? 

You do not have to answer all of the above questions--they are just ideas.  Use this post to tell me about the work you've been doing at home.  Sometimes the best learning occurs when you've had to tackle problems on your own.  Tell us what you've learned!

Remember to title your post with your name. And feel free to post comments to other people's post. If you had similar problems, let them know! And if you have an idea for a solution, tell them!

 

Charlotte Maurno

Eight Bionic Animals

In this article there is a female elephant that lost her leg stepping onto something harmful. Years following that she was living without a leg. Finally she was treated at the Elephant Hospital of Northern Thailand. Now she still lives a happy life, even though she has a fake leg to live on.

I thought this article was interesting because i didn't know that elephants could be treated for that, too. I admire this elephants bravery to try to life a normal life and to have a fake leg at the same time.

Wim Quier-Current Event 10/2/09

At Least 1,100 Dead from Indonesia Quakes-cnn.com

Earthquakes are very devastating to mankind. Earthquakes can be caused by shifts in the tectonic plates. These earthquakes were at a 6.6 magnitude. The place that got most of the force was the western sumatran capital padang, which there is an estimated 376 people dead.


This was interesting to me because it shows how powerful nature can be, and also how devastating it can be. Also it makes me think what i would do if i was in the position of the sumatran people which have no home and not cities because of the force of the earthquakes.