Roller Coaster STEM Activity: Middle School Engineering Design

lesson overview

Roller Coaster Middle School Engineering Design STEM Activity: Students design and build a fun and safe ride while learning about kinetic and potential energy! This engaging activity is perfect for middle school classrooms and includes an instructional video with real-world connections and science concepts!

Included in this product:

• Detailed teacher guide with links to resources

• Instructional video - great for distance learning or support in the classroom!

• Teacher instructional slides

• Editable student handouts: digital and printed versions

• STEM Career Connections

• Real-world STEM history and science handouts

• Math extensions problems (calculating average speed)

• Peer feedback and reflection pages

In this activity, students will: 

• Learn about an engineering problem they need to solve.

• Connect the problem to STEM careers and a real-world event.

• Gather materials and brainstorm ideas.

• Draw a design idea.

• Build and test their device. Students will keep making changes and improving their design.

• Share their final design.

Materials for Challenge:

• Scissors

• Tape

• Ping pong ball for testing

• Materials for a track such as paper, newspaper, construction paper, cardboard (cereal boxes, tissues boxes, etc), paper plates, and toilet paper rolls.

• Materials for a support structure such as cereal boxes, rolled paper (newspaper, construction paper, magazines), or even a chair will work

Looking for more STEM lessons? Find the Vivify resource guide here: bit.ly/VivifyResourceGuide

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