For the seventh year in a row, students in Tecumseh High School’s Honors Physics class competed in the Paper Roller Coaster Building Contest. The contest is the brainchild of Physics teacher, Mr. Mike Holbrook, who wanted to offer his students an opportunity to become “directors and managers of their own learning process.”

Holbrook says, “One of the major advantages of project work (like this) is it makes school more like real life. The students have an opportunity to build teamwork skills, public speaking skills, and problem-solving skills...all while learning physics! It’s an in-depth investigation of a real-world topic.”

The Paper Roller Coaster Building Contest provides Holbrook’s students with an opportunity to use complex math and science skills to design, implement, construct, and demonstrate a working roller coaster design.

Students are broken up into building teams and get five months to build the coasters. Students are required to create a design booklet showing the final Physics mathematical calculations of the coaster, its blueprints, their testing analysis, and the team’s conclusions about the project.

Teams are only allowed to use paper-based products to build the coaster and track. A marble serves as a coaster cart. Teams are also permitted to use any other decorations they feel will add to their project. Lights, sound, and other decorations may be used, but not as part of the track itself.

A group of teachers and community members judge each coaster based on its theme, creativity, construction, engineering, complexity, and thrills.

Overall, students seem to enjoy the project, which is completed almost entirely on their own time after school. Holbrook says his favorite part of the project is watching his students’ personalities come through in the coaster designs, “I love hearing the many ideas they have for their theme and designs. When they start their build process, many designs go through changes as (students) find out (building it) is more difficult than anticipated!”

Students say managing time was often difficult, “We started our project pretty early on,” says one student, “But we still had trouble getting our project done, especially since we had to change a major feature of it. Some of our classmates started building just a few weeks ago, and they have been really stressed out!” Students also advise future paper roller coaster designers to start collecting supplies early on, especially given the materials constraints.

The 2017 winning designers and roller coasters are:

First Place

Designers: Lucy Eier, Noah Berner, and Reed Finfrock
Roller Coaster: “Nuke-town” (End of Days theme)

Second Place
Designers: Ashlynn Moore, Mati Shanahan, and Blayde Gilley
Roller Coaster: “The North Polar Coaster” (North Pole Christmas theme)

Third Place
Designers: Matt Brown, Kenny Brogan, Luke Gilles
Roller Coaster: “Roller Toaster Breakfast Coaster” (Breakfast theme)

For several years, Tecumseh’s Honors Physics classes have taken field trip to Kings Island for the park’s “Math and Science Education Days.” The winning team wins prizes ranging from tickets to Kings Island to receiving spending money in the park. Holbrook says the prizes are made possible by generous donations provided by community members, non-profit organizations, and local businesses who wish to be “Partners in Education.”