Teacher Materials

Rubric for the Home Roller Coaster Project
This rubric helps students identify what the targets are for their roller coaster project. The project is used as a performance assessment in both math and science.

Roller Coaster Project Criteria and Scoring Rubric

Name:___________________
Partner(s):_________________________________
(Include parent of family members if they helped)

  • Design a 3-element marble roller coaster (may use other car type).
  • Work in groups of up to three people.
  • Deliver to school by May 10th.
  • Keep a journal of the process. Record in composition book.
  • Get parent signature.
  • Fill out scoring rubric below before bringing the roller coaster to school. Explain why you chose the column by writing comments in that particular box. See example below.
    (Example)
    Meets Mastery
    Redesign Needed

    Gravitational force

    		   Marble only made it through the first two elements - too many elements
    Three design elements Spiral, loop, two camel backs, and an inversion  

Scoring Rubric for Home Roller Coaster

 
Meets Mastery
Redesign Needed

Material Design:
Made from scratch, open-topped, sturdy

    

Force:
Marble stays on track entire time, only gravitational force used, marble completes the circuit

    
Design Elements:
Has three or more elements		    
Size:
Minimum of 75 cm in length, width, and height		    
Journal-
Description of the process: includes date, time and money spent, and where materials were acquired. Describes problems and solutions.		    

Checklist for Bonus Points:

Included setting, surroundings   Included more than 3 elements  
Designed continuous circuit   other  

****Parent Signature:___________________
I have seen my son/daughter's project and read their comments on the Scoring Rubric.

Performance Assessment Conducted During Class:
  • My roller coaster's top speed is ___________. Record on class chart.
  • The average speed is ___________. Record on class chart.
  • My roller coaster's top height is ___________. Record on class chart.
  • Mass of marble is ___________. Record on class chart.
  • I used the photogates for acceleration. It recorded ______. Record on class chart.
  • Calculate the angle of the first drop ___________. Record on class chart.
  • Below are the results of the experiments that I tried with different weights of marbles (use scientific explanation):

 

 

Sketch the design of your roller coaster below.

 

 

 

 

What materials did you use?

Describe what was good and bad about the materials you chose?

 

Pick a segment of your journal to share.

Be prepared to answer any of these questions orally in class:

  • How does the ride demonstrate the law of inertia?
  • How does the ride demonstrate the law of unbalanced forces? (Newton's 2nd, mass x acceleration = force)
  • How does the ride demonstrate action-reaction pairs of forces?
  • What transformations of energy are taking place in the ride? (forms and types of energy)