Teaching Guide
SO YOU WANT TO BUILD A ROLLER COASTER!?
produced by
Juanita Randolph and Nasim Hijaz
Web Institute for Teachers, Summer, 2001
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Introduction | Aim
| Rationale | Audience
| Prerequisites | Subject-Matter
|
Goals and Objectives | Instructional
Plan | Materials | Assessment
and Evaluation | Appendices ! Resources
! Glossary
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Introduction
Your group wants to bid on a
job to design and build a roller coaster. Not just any roller coaster,
but the "World's Greatest Roller Coaster".
You will need four (4) members for
your group. Everyone must come up with research on the history of roller
coasters. Everyone must keep a daily journal log and meet on a daily basis.
Each member will be given a job,
based on their skills. The jobs are; Budget Manager (person with good math
skills), Reporter ( person who writes well and takes good notes), Designer
(a person who might be good at art and has a good imagination) and a Materials
Manager (person responsible for getting the materials).
This will be a 6 week project, with
weekly reports to teacher.
Aim
The aim of this Roller Coaster Web
Quest is to increase math and writing skills while developing
collaborative work skills and to
increase Scientic Theory and formulas for the 6th grade student in both
the regular education and the special education students (inclusion).
Rationale
Students will always require basic
math skills in order to maintain a somewhat comfortable lifestyle and developing
a budget is one way of doing that. Academically; increasing math, grammar,
science and higher order thinking skills are extremely important in developing
a productive self sufficient member of society. The added use of technology
will enhance their skills and better prepare them for the future.
Goals and Objectives
design a new roller coaster
develop a budget for building a
"roller coaster"
write a budget proposal
research history of roller coasters
present an oral presentation and
demonstration of final project
successfully incorporate the use
of the formula for; time, distance and speed
Audience
6th Grade, regular and Special Education
(Inclusion Class)
Prerequisites
basic math skills for a student at
the 6th grade level
basic writing skills for research
and report writing
basic skills in science with a
focus on; distance, speed, time formula
basic computer technology skills
(able to search the Web)
Subject-Matter
Mathematics, Science, Computer Technology,
Writing (Language Arts) and Art
Instructional Plan
-
divide class into groups of 4
-
explain the activity, "So You Want
to Build a Roller Coaster!?"
-
each student will keep a daily
journal
-
give the students a time line for the
project (6 weeks)
-
each student is responsible for independent
research and written notes (2 weeks)
-
within each group, members decide who
will have which job (budget manager, design manager, materials manager,
reporter)
-
students will meet for 30 minutes per
day to update, discuss, plan and write in their journals
-
3rd week - group presents first rough
draft to teacher
-
4th week - group presents final rough
draft, with corrections, to teacher
-
5th week - materials distributed to
students
-
6th week - final presentations and
demonstrations of projects
-
Materials
Plastic straws, glue, tape measure,
toothpicks, crafts sticks (popsicle sticks), and miniature cars.
Poster board and colored pencils.
Assessment and Evaluation
Determination of final grade
will be based on the following:
25% for research
summaries and proposal
25% budget and
calculations (all practice and final copies)
50% for presentation and design.
All grading points are based on
group participation.
Appendices (optional, if needed)
Resources
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Glossary
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