architects@work

Architects@Work
The architect on each team is responsible for preparing blueprints that show two views of the roller coaster drawn to scale and an artistic rendition.

Gather the Tools: Each architect gets a piece of poster board that has one side marked with a ½'' grid. The side with the grid is for a continuous side view and a top view drawn to scale. The side without gridlines is for an artistic rendition and a car design.

"This type of poster board is more expensive and students could have drawn gridlines themselves but we were feeling pressed for time and didn't want to use any class time for this process. It is not a good use of class time, but at the same time, it's hard to justify the added expensive of grid poster board. Next year I plan to have all architects prepare gridlines on poster board at home." -- Meile Harris

Establish an Appropriate Scale: Architects find an appropriate scale for their blueprint drawings by trial and error, using the height of the initial drop the team has planned for their coaster. They need a scale that will show details of the ride, but they also need to keep it small enough to be represented on the poster board. Most students used ½'' : 50 ft or ½" : 100 ft.

"In a previous unit, students had done several activities using scale and proportion so it was a fairly simple activity." -- Meile Harris

Draw a Continuous Side View: Next, architects prepare a continuous side view of their roller coaster using the scale they have determined. This task requires them to think carefully about how each segment of the coaster looks if they are standing directly perpendicular to that segment.

Almost all students struggled with their continuous side views at some point. They wanted to do a three-dimensional representation of their elements. Next year I will have them use the maquette (the pipe-cleaner model) produced by the group's engineer while doing this. I think this will alleviate most of the problems students had during this time." -- Meile Harris

Analyze the Track: The continuous side view is used for an analysis of time, distance, and speed for sections of the track. Students start with the distance of the drop and estimate the speed the car travels during that segment of track. With values for distance and speed, students calculate the time it takes for the car to travel that segment. They tally the distance and time for all segments of the track to get the total distance and run time for the ride.

Continuous side view of the Black Diamond

Draw a Top View: The top view requires architects to think carefully about what an element like a loop will look like from the top, with many features flattened or shorter than the normal 3-D view.

"Students struggled with this representation because they knew the total length of track and wanted to represent that full length. Again, I think working off the model from the engineers would take care of the problem for the most part." -- Meile Harris

Top View of the Black Diamond

Design a Car: The car design requires a different scale to show enough detail. The architects also need to consider and present safety features in their designs.

Car Design for the Black Diamond

Car Design for the Amazon

Seat Detail

Artistic Rendition: The artistic rendition is a 3-D view of the roller coaster with setting and theme features for a backdrop. The architect needs to maintain a scale perspective and keep trees, signs, and other setting features in proportion.

"Most students thought this was the focus of the architect's work. Some of the architects who thought this was an art project were a little overwhelmed with the math required. For this task, students were shown examples from the last year." --Meile Harris

Artistic Rendition of the "Black Diamond" and the "Amazon"

Keep a Journal: Everyone keeps a journal showing their progress through the tasks.

Amanda's Journal