Teaching Guide
SO, YOU WANT TO BUILD
A ROLLER COASTER
produced by
NASIM HIJAZ & JUANITA
RANDOLPH
Web Institute for Teachers, Summer, 2001
Menu
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Introduction
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Aim
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Rationale
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Goals and Objectives
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Audience
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Pre-Requisties
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Subject - Matter
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Instructional Plan
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Materials
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Assessment and Evaluation
Introduction | Aim
| Rationale | Audience
| Prerequisites | Subject-Matter
|
Goals and Objectives | Instructional
Plan | Materials | Assessment
and Evaluation | Appendices ! Resources
! Glossary
Student
Page
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
- person who might be good at art and has a good imagination
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 collaborative Roller
Coaster web quest is to:
Increase Math
Skills
Increase Writing Skills
Develop Group/Collaborative Work Skills and
Increase Skills in Scientific Theory and Formulas for 6th graders
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 importat in developing a
productive self sufficient member
of society. The added use fo technology will enchance
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 coaster
Present an oral presentation and demonstration of final project
Successfully incorporate the use of the formula for time, distance, and
speed
Audience
This lesson is appropriate for students
in grades 6 - 8. Modification for other grade levels
can be made.
Prerequisites
Basic math skills for students
at the 6th grade level
Basic writing skills for research
paper.
Basic skills in science with a focus
on distance, speed and time formula
Basic computer technology skills
(able to search the web)
Subject-Matter
Mathematics, Science, Computer
Technology, Writing (Language Arts) and Art
Instructional Plan
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Divide class into groups of four (4)
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Explain the activity: "So you
want to build a Roller Coaster"
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Each student will keep a daily journal
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Give students a time line of (6 weeks)
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Each student is responsible for independent
research and written notes (2 weeks)
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Within each group, members decide who
will have which job, (budget manager,
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design manager, materials manager, reporter
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Students will meet for 30 minutes per
day to update, discuss, plan and write in their journals
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3rd week - group presents first rough
draft to teach
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4th week - group presents final rough
draft, with corrections, to teacher
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5th week - materals distrubted to students
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6th week - final presentations and
demonstrations of projects
Materials
Plastic straws, glue, tape measure,
toothpicks, crafts sticks(popscile stick),
and miniature cars.
Poster boards and color pencils.
Assessment and Evaluation
Determination
of final grade will be based upon the following:
25% for research, summeries and proposal
25% for budget and calculations (all practice and final copies)
50% for presentation and design
All grading points are based on group partitipation.
Appendices (optional, if needed)
Resources
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Glossary
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