We can have a roller coaster score contest as well as Phet Lab fun! I discovered that thermal energy really rises when you launch your skater off the ramp and land on a house. I wonder if that's what "crash and burn" means?
It wasn't as dramatic as being dumped into the lava bath at the end of Colin's Minecraft Coaster to Hell and catching on fire, but what my cherubs don't know won't disappoint them. There's something really satisfying as a teacher or a student to setting something on fire, crashing it, burning it, or otherwise wrecking it during testing week! These are the perfect tools for this time of year. If only we could get into Minecraft and have a Mrs. Stegall TNT Festival and put some STEM ideas into practice there!
Yes, I know this is sarcastic and hostile but seriously, I've been part of the testing thing for 15 years and it's a miracle I haven't put one of my own eyes out yet watching colleagues and children enter this arena like they were heading into shark zone without a cage. Grrrr..........
I will be posting my rollercoaster score to see who can beat me this week during library time! Might be a fuzzy pencil reward in here somewhere! Still wishing we had Minecraft because truly Minecraft is it's own reward! Just being able to set yourself on fire eliminates the need for rewards like fuzzy pencils. In the meantime, we'll see who can beat my rollercoaster score!
Glad you enjoyed class - I liked the brainpop activity as well, and built a roller coaster with my kids last night. Our score was not as high as yours... perhaps it will inspire them to go bigger!
ReplyDeleteYour observation about the dissipated energy is a good one. Conservation of energy tells us that energy is never created or destroyed, only changes form. So, that potential and kinetic energy has to go somewhere when the skater crashes on the ground... and where it goes is into heat (and sound, and deformation of materials). More dissipated (or dispersed) forms of energy. So, "crash and burn" is very appropriate (think about a meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere, when it all of a sudden encounters our atmosphere - air molecules that create friction - and burns up)
My score was a paltry 1536, proving that my coaster-fu is weak.
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