Roller Coasters

This week we studied forces of motion using a lesson from the book More Picture Perfect Science.  Last year Milford teachers were lucky to receive professional development from the authors of this book.  I am excited to be taking their class this summer through Miami University.
We began the lesson by reading Roller Coaster.  This simple, but powerful children's book shows readers the various emotions of riding a roller coaster from beginning to end.  You can see our students' roller coaster expressions above.

After the book, students were presented with several roller coaster challenges.  Could they get the ball to go faster?  Slower?  Could the ball go over a hill?  Two hills?  The ultimate challenge was to get the ball to go around a loop.  One group had success with this twice!

The next day we learned about gravity through the book I Fall Down.  Did you know that if there was no air a hammer and feather would land at the exact same time?  Check out this video.Apollo 15 feather drop