Running Head: ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 1

Arizona State University

Roller Coaster Project Based Learning

An Experience in Professional Teamwork Skills, Science, and Building Construction

Philip Dush

TEL 311

Heather Weiner

6 October 2019
ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 2

Part I – Applicant Biography and School Environment Narrative

My name is Philip Dush. I am a science and math teacher for grades 7 & 8 at Mountain Sky Jr

High School. For four year I have taught at this location and witnessed students grow. I believe

the most important part for these students is to impart upon them healthy boundaries, and healthy

relationships. It is fortunate then that Mountain Sky also has an emphasis on student growth

through academics. Here at our school we believe in providing an excellent education to our

students through rigorous and engaging instruction in all subjects, including electives. Our

academic team and small structure provide a small school feeling to help improve

communications, community, and integration. We supply students with the necessary skills for

practical life, and communication.

Project based learning is a valuable tool for our school in which we utilize almost every

day. We have online trivia games that students join as teams to figure out answers on chrome

books; I personally have students join groups to work on infographs for science projects on google

slides. This allows the opportunity for students to learn how to communicate their ideas, and due

to the frequency of such projects they refine and hone their skills to communicate ideas efficiently.

In order to facilitate this continued critical growth of students, I have a proposal for a new

project that is practical for the real world, enjoyable for the students, but most importantly it is

project based learning. A common issue for building and city planning is spacing. There is only a

finite amount of space in which a building can be constructed. Students would be grouped in an

appropriate size number and given rolls: a project manager, builders, drafters, and financial

advisors. The goal is to build a roller coaster using a certain set of educational roller coast building
ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 3

set within a limited amount of space, and a limited amount of money. There will be three space

limitations that students will be able to choose from: A space that is thin and long, A space that

already has preexisting building that must be worked around, and a starting space that is open, but

are given limited funding. It will be up to the students to draft a roller coaster design, argue and

advertise themselves for more funding to build their roller coaster, and finally, to build it in such

a way that the laws of physics are observed and considered. Each piece that the students use to

build their roller coaster will cost fake money and distributed by the teacher.

The advantages of this roller coaster based project are numerous, as it combines several

different fields of study, and real life application. Physics is observed using kinetic and potential

energy, momentum, velocity, gravity, and acceleration. By using fake money, students would be

given a taste of finances and the critical thinking required to use them practically, and wisely. As

a group with different roles, Students will learn to effectively communicate between the different

roles and engage each other in various problem-solving situations.

I ask that my proposal would be taken into consideration for investment for my students,

and the students in this district.

ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 4

Part II – Summary of Project and Project Impact

For the past two decades teachers have been struggling to engage students in their learning.

Administration and some teachers like to pretend that students are perfect automatons that will always want

to learn and will be engaged at all moments. That’s not only naive, but irresponsible of the teachers and

administration as well. It puts the sole responsibility of learning on the students. This in turn creates a sort

of contradiction. If they are responsible enough to take their education solely into their hands without any

help from teachers or parents, then why couldn’t they be trusted enough to consume alcohol, tobacco

products or engage in sexual behavior? Obviously, most students aren’t mature or wise enough to make

these decisions safely or of their own accord, so it seems to be fair that they shouldn’t shoulder the burden

of education on their own. Part of this needs to be enforced by parents, and part of it needs to be engaged

by teachers.

It has been a rule of mine that if a student ever askes the dreaded question, “when will I ever use

this?” it means I have failed as a teacher. If my job is done correctly, students shouldn’t care if they’ll ever

use the material learned; they’ll be too busy enjoying it. This project-based learning lesson is a perfect

example of engaging students in a multitude of areas while keeping their interest.

City building and planning is very complicated and has many factors that those involved need to

take into consideration. The plan then is to have students be involved in a mock scenario. The student will

be divided into appropriate group sizes and given roles to fulfill. Managers are group leaders. They provide

the group with direction and motivation and have the final say in disagreements and direction.

Drafters/builders will draft up a mock blueprint and physically build the model. Financial advisors will be

concerned with gathering and spending funds.

The students themselves will be building a model rollercoaster. The groups will be given three

“plots” of land to choose from where they will build their coasters. There will be a long and thin area, a

comfortable sized plot with buildings and obstacles to build around, and a normal comfortable sized plot.
ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 5

However, the comfortable sized plot comes with a reduction in budget; which we will get to in a bit. The

drafter/builders will draft a prototype to be reviewed by the manager. When a final plan is approved, the

drafter/builders will then start construction on the project. When there is a conflict between building and

the written draft, the manager will have final say in reconciliation between the two. As stated before, the

financial advisor oversees all expenses and be given a budget of fake money, of which they will be primarily

using to buy new roller coaster parts. Halfway through this building process (or halfway through the lesson

plan) the students will be given the opportunity to “advertise” to other groups about their rollercoaster and

give a quick demonstration along with some scientific data about potential energy. The groups will write

something they liked, and something that could be approved about the roller coaster. If they choose to, they

can also invest some money into the roller coaster to give to the judged group. The students will have a few

more days to make improvements and to finalize their coasters. Over the next two or three class periods,

the groups will work together to come up with advertisements; video demonstrations, posters, and any other

creative outlet they might come up with. They will have a final presentation representing their coaster. This

presentation will include their advertisement campaign, design of the roller coaster and the same scientific

data from before along with calculations of velocity at two different places. The final presentation can be

done in several ways depending on teacher resources and scheduling. The simplest way is for the teacher

and the other groups to grade their final presentation. The students could also present to other classes who

will write down simple thoughts about the presentation and roller coaster itself. If teachers have other ideas

to finalize the project, that is fine too. Either way, the money invested during the halfway presentations will

have accumulated interest based on how well received the project the invested into did. If it was poorly

received or didn’t catch the attention of other students, their return might be null or even negative, losing

them money. The opposite is also true, and they could have a net gain.

This plan is of course subject to change based upon the various variables involved, such as the

amount of students involved. For my school, I have six classes averaging around 30 students each. Together

that is 180 students learning building skills, communication skills, group work skills and scientific skills.
ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 6

Over the course of three years, granted that class sizes do not decrease, that’s about 540 students in my

classes alone. Putting this project in other classes only increases the amount of students who will various

skills that they will be able to put into use in the real world.
ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 7

Part III – Project Narrative

The groups in the project will concern themselves with four questions of increasing levels

of complexity. How are structures made, and more specifically, how is a roller coaster built?

Second, what roles do people take on during such a project? Third, what are some considerations

that must be made before building? Lastly, why does the building process have these roles, and

why does it have to consider so many variables?

The point of these questions is to have the students gain a wider perspective of how the

adult world works. Rome wasn’t built by a single person, and a war doesn’t start exclusively

because of one person and their goals. Along the way, students will be fulfilling College and

Career ready standards: I.A.-.b, I.A.-.d, I.A.-.e, II.A.-.a, II.A.-.b, II.A.-.c, II.B.-.a, II.B.-.b, III.A.-

.a, III.B.-.a, III.B.-.c, III.B.-.d, III.C.-.a, III.C.-.c, III.C.-.e, V.A.-.a, V.A.-.c, V.B.-.a, V.B.-.b,

V.B.-.c, and many more. Suffice to say, there are many opportunities for students to gain skills

pertaining to future careers. Most of these opportunities and content standards are reminiscent of

the exact skills and social/communication skills that are needed for adults to effectively finish or

improve a project that is expected in any career field. This project would of course double dip

into the Arizona Content Standards for Science P2, P3, and P4, essentially incorporating

gravitational acceleration, Newton’s laws of forces, and conservation of kinetic and potential

energy into one project.

The project itself will last ten days. The first day will be going over the project,

expectations, the rubric and culminate in some light research and answering the questions asked

from two paragraphs before. The second day will have the students being split into groups, given

their budget of fake money, deciding on roles, and having the team draw up a draft of the roller

coaster while the other team members create an advertising campaign. They will end the day by
ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 8

submitting their proposal and using their fake money to buy a plot of land. The third and fourth

day will be spent building their roller coaster and conducting calculations of the potential and

kinetic energy at four spots on their coast: Where the start is, two points in the middle of the

coaster, and the termination point of the coaster. They will also calculate the velocity and

gravitational acceleration at these points. On the fifth and sixth day, the students will give a

presentation on their roller coaster, including their calculations and advertisements to raise

attraction to their coaster. The other students are given a short peer review sheet they can use to

judge the other students project. They teacher themselves will also be reviewing the students

work on their own sheet. The students may use any money left over to “invest” in other student’s

roller coasters. On day seven and eight the students will be given a chance to fix any flaws in

their coaster, and to address any criticism received from the presentation. On the ninth and tenth

day, students will again be presenting their coasters. If circumstances permit it, students will

present their roller coasters in a much more public setting, such as in front of other classes in an

auditorium or library. Otherwise, the presentations will be conducted as before. These

presentations will the overarching grade for the students. Nervousness and shyness will not be

considered when grading out of fairness in the differences of disposition of students. As a final

incentive to do well, at the end of the projects duration students will be given fake money based

on how well their roller coaster advertised, how well the coasters they invested in did, and by

how interesting their coaster is rated by others.

As stated before, the final assessment of the student’s project will be their presentations,

however, they will be assessed in a few other ways. Their proposal and draft of the coaster will

be a form of assessment, as will sections from two rubrics on the website my.pblworks.org for

creativity and collaboration. Less formal assessments will take place almost every moment as the
ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 9

teacher guides, instructs, checks for understanding through simple questions, and short visits to

each group during the planning and constructing phases of the project.

A roller coaster is exciting to many adolescents. This is a period in which they are

seeking excitement and adventure. They are also entering young adulthood yet are still on the

cusp of childhood. Most students would also rather be exciting their pleasure centers of the brain

instead of learning material. By taking all these factors into account, this project is an excellent

way to engage them in all of these accounts. They get to build something akin to using Legos;

they get to play with toys. While indulging themselves in this, they also indulge their sense of

wanting to be an adult by taking on the same roles many adults do in their own careers. And if

the students cannot ride a roller coaster themselves, the next best thing is for them to create

something they themselves can watch go through tight turns, loop de loops, and spirals. This

project engages most of an adolescents desires: to make something, to play with toys, to be an

adult, and most importantly, to not “learn” material, all while maintaining an education about

physics, the social skills of the adult world, and the properties of this world.
ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 10

Part IV - Budget

Item Item Cost Item Amount Where to Aquire

FAO Schwarz Build-A- 60$ 105 Kohl’s
Roller Coaster 753- Online Catalogue
piece Set

As you may see, the budget for this project is small. Only a single component is needed. Assuming

there are 35 students in class, four students per group, and include 21(three per class) more components for

replacement parts that would be needed over the years to make a total of 84 (twelve per class) components.

However, there are always complications and erring on the side of caution, I have increased the amount to

105 (fifteen per class). These models are the cornerstone of the entire project. Without them there will be

no project to be had. The drafting, ingenuity of problem solving and budgeting skills the students are meant

to learn would not be possible without the central piece.

 ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 11

Appendix

Ten Day Plan:

Day # Plan of the Day

Day 1 Project expectations, rubric review, research.

Day 2 Group and role assignments. Drafting and

submitting roller coaster plan, drafting

advertisement campaign. Choosing/buying plot of

land for rollercoaster

Day 3 Building Roller coaster

Day 4 Building Roller coaster and calculating

potential/kinetic energy

Day 5 Presentations/student peer reviews/Investing

Day 6 Presentations/student peer reviews/Investing

Day 7 Making alterations/fixing flaws in project.

Day 8 Making alterations/fixing flaws in project.

Day 9 Final Presentations

Day 10 Final Presentations

Inquiry Based Lesson Plan:

Inquiry (5E) Lesson Plan

Teachers: Subject:
Philip Dush Physics
Common Core State Standards:
 Arizona Content Standards for Science P2, P3, and P4
 ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 12

Objective (Explicit):
 By the end of the project students will have an understanding of the economics, logistics, roles and physics
that it takes to construct a structure.
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable):
 Include a copy of the lesson assessment.
 Provide exemplar student responses with the level of detail you expect to see.
 Assign value to each portion of the response.

Students will submit a rough draft on their project that shows what they will build, roughly how much it
will cost and the roles each student is associated with. Students will present their project in such a way that
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (Sequenced from basic to complex):
 How will you review past learning and make connections to previous lessons?
 What skills and content are needed to ultimately master this lesson objective?
 How is this objective relevant to students, their lives, and/or the real world?
Students will utilize the skills and knowledge they have gained about velocity, acceleration, force, kinetic
energy and potential energy to understand how roller coasters operate and how structures are build to
specified codes.
Key vocabulary: Velocity, Acceleration, Kinetic Materials: FAO Schwartz Build-A-Roller Coaster
Energy, Potential Energy, Budgeting Set, Chrome Book
Engage
 How will you activate student interest?
 How will you hook student attention?
 What questions will you pose, based on your objective, that students will seek to answer in Explore?
Teacher Will: Student Will:
Ask students inquiry based questions such as, how Students will talk with peers, and come up with ideas
are structures built, and specifically, how is a roller to answer the question and research the process of
coaster built. constructing a building/rollercoaster.
Explore
 How will model your performance expectations? Remember, you are not modeling what you want students
to discover but need to model expected behavior or required procedures.
 How will students take the lead and actively use materials to discover information that will help them
answer the question posed in Engage?
 What questions or prompts will you be prepared to use with students while they are “exploring”?
Teacher Will: Student Will:
Prompt the students to expand their ideas of Organize into teams, assign roles to themselves, and
construction to roles needed. Walk amongst students draft a blueprint of their roller coaster, culminating
to gauge their progress. into eventually building the roller coaster.
Co-Teaching Strategy
 What co-teaching approach will you use to maximize student achievement?
Having two instructors walk the room asking leading questions to improve student thought process and
answering questions covers more ground and allows the instructors to engage more personally than
superficially.

Differentiation Strategy
 What accommodations/modifications will you provide for specific students?
 How will you anticipate students that need an additional challenge?
The differing roles will play to different student strengths. Financial/Scientific advisors are primarily
focused on the math aspect, drafters/builders will have a tactile/visual experience, and managers can will
be for those with either leadership qualities or social qualities.
 ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 13

Explain
 How will all students have an opportunity to share what they discovered?
 How will you connect student discoveries to correct content terms/explanations?
 How will all students articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the sub-objectives by
answering the question from Engage before moving on?
Teacher Will: Student Will:
Write down criticisms and accomplishments that the Students who are presenting will show their work,
students can use as feed back. advertise their roller coaster and give scientific data
(velocity, kinetic energy, potential energy) about
their roller coaster.
Students who are not presenting will be writing
down accomplishments and criticisms of those that
are presenting.
Co-Teaching Strategy
 What co-teaching approach will you use to maximize student achievement?
Having two instructors give critics gives the students presenting a broader sense of what is good and what
is not.

Differentiation Strategy
 What accommodations/modifications will you provide for specific students?
 How will you anticipate students that need an additional challenge?
This again plays into the roles. The more social members will be able to present on the advertisement,
those heavy in mathematics will be able to explain the science better, and the builders/drafters can explain
their planning process through visuals.

Elaborate
 How will students take the learning from Explore and Explain and apply it to a new circumstance or
explore a particular aspect of this learning at a deep level?
 How will students use higher order thinking at this stage? (e.g. A common practice in this section is to
pose a “what If question”)
 How will all students articulate how their understanding has changed or been solidified?
Teacher Will: Student Will:
Once again walk amongst the students to answer Take the criticism from presenting and fine tune
questions and ask inquiry based lessons. their rollercoasters while at the same time fine tune
their presentations into a richer product.
Co-Teaching Strategy
 What co-teaching approach will you use to maximize student achievement?
With critics given out, students will have more questions and two teachers are able to cover more ground
and explain more fully with the extra time afforded to them.

Differentiation Strategy
 What accommodations/modifications will you provide for specific students?
 How will you anticipate students that need an additional challenge?
Evaluate
 How will all students demonstrate mastery of the lesson objective (though perhaps not mastery of the
Elaborate content)?
 How will students have an opportunity to summarize the big concepts they learned (separate from the
assessment)?
Teacher Will: Student Will:
 ROLLER COASTER PROJECT BASED LEARNING 14

Grade the students on another presentation based Present their final product. They will include their
upon a rubric given out from before. planning process, scientific data, and advertise the
attractions about their rollercoasters.
Students not presenting will watch the presentation
and ask questions they have afterwards.
Co-Teaching Strategy
 What co-teaching approach will you use to maximize student achievement?
While one instructor is observing/grading the presentation, the other instructor will manage the students so
that they will reframe from being disruptive during the presentation.

Differentiation Strategy
 What accommodations/modifications will you provide for specific students?
 How will you anticipate students that need an additional challenge?
The individual roles play to certain strengths. The more social members will be able to present on the
advertisement, those heavy in mathematics will be able to explain the science better, and the
builders/drafters can explain their planning process through visuals.