At Hawthorne High School, it has been a tradition for pre-calculus students under the direction of teachers Cheryl Smith, Ryan McMann, and Casey Flynn, to build and present roller coaster projects that implement different math and physics skills and show off creative abilities. This year’s projects were presented on May 1, 2013.

The students brought their final models to the high school courtyard and presented them throughout the day to fellow students, staff, and visiting family members. Some of the names of projects included “The Ring of Fire,” “The Game of Life,” “Mario Madness,” “Underwater,” “Candy Land” and “Indiana Jones: The Great Escape.”

To complete the project, the students needed various types of loops and mechanics in their project. Some of the requirements for their models included at least one clothoid loop (which is narrow and oval) and one inversion loop (which is similar to a twist), and one steep drop. Their completed designs needed to be sturdy, durable and open-topped.

The marble, which was to travel the course of the coaster, had to stay on track consistently for four to eight seconds.Additionally, Smith stated that students had to do a multitude of calculations including problems like the initial velocity and kinetic energy verses potential energy. Each group had to keep a journal recording its experiences, findings, and analyses during the different stages of building the coaster.

Smith has done this project for five years. When asked what first sparked the idea, she said, “What gave me the idea was the sine and cosine laws that I cover at the end of the trigonometry unit.”

Many students enjoyed the experience with building the roller coaster models, and their hard work certainly showed in the finished products.