Marble Car Roller Coaster

Cars are a huge part of your daily life. How much do you think

gasoline costs? Families across the United States spend

hundreds of dollars every month on gas. Fossil fuels are non-renewable and pollute the environment with harmful greenhouse

gases. What if we could use less gasoline to move where we

want to go? Cars that can do a better job with this are more

efficient. If a car is more efficient, it also has a higher fuel

economy. You have probably heard fuel economy as “miles per

gallon”. While some engineers design efficient cars, others run

tests to determine the fuel economy of the vehicle. This means

they need to be able to control the car in a certain pattern to get

an accurate test. This pattern tracks the speed of the car, and

is known as a “drive cycle.” In fact, it looks a lot like a roller coaster!

    

Marble Car Roller Coaster TEK8 Student Guide

The student handout will be given to all students working on the design challenge. It gives a brief recap of the story, it helps the students identify what they are attempting to achieve, and it recaps the design process.

Marble Car Roller Coaster TEK8 Instructor’s Guide

This Instructor’s Guide provides the instructor additional information on how to run the design challenge with alternatives for materials and test setups as well as information to help make the design challenge a good educational experience.

Telling the Story Video

The Telling the Story Video conveys the societal impact of the student’s research that is the basis for the design challenge and will set the problem-solving context for students.