Midlands fifth graders put dreams in flight by building roller coasters

The project intends to teach the students about gravity and magnetic forces acting on objects

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — Fifth graders transformed the cafeteria at Caughman Road Elementary School into an amusement park. This was part of a class project where students designed their own roller coasters to learn more about force and energy. 

For the last five years, Marquita Woodard has shown her fifth graders that science class is not all about complicated principles and lectures.

Instead, she says the best way to learn Newton’s laws is to have a little fun.

“Kids get excited about amusement parks, and they don’t understand that I’m at an amusement park, I’m on a roller coaster, what forces are acting on it? They think they just ride it, it goes up and they’re dropping. But they got to know that gravity is actually pulling them down, there’s magnetism involved, there’s friction involved, so using that science in everyday life,” Woodard said. 

Woodard gave the students two weeks to design their own roller coasters using materials like PVC pipes, foam and cardboard.

“It was actually pretty fun because I like being together and working on fun projects and doing a lot of hands-on things, and I like it because it is also very educational. You can also learn about all the different forces and how they work together and how they act on the marble,” said Addison Fowler, a fifth grader at Caughman Elementary.

By giving the students an interactive way to learn about science, their teacher is hopeful it will inspire them to pursue STEM careers in the future.

“With the kids doing the science experiment to know they can be scientists, they can be engineers, and they are the future, and with so many STEM careers now, that my kids really have a foundation and are not intimidated by it,” Woodard said.

Students from all grades at Caughman Road Elementary had a chance to see how each roller coaster worked Monday morning.