Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Potential and Kinetic Energy

Storybook Theme Park Ride students - you must visit and learn about the principles that allow our roller coaster to work.

Potential and Kinetic Energy

Explore More

ThinkQuest

ClassZone

Gravitational Potential Energy

Kids and Energy

Friday, December 10, 2010

Storybook Theme Park Ride Update

Yesterday we had an interesting time seeing if a basic static electricity experiment could power our ride.  We did a lot of trial and error experimentation.  In short, we could not get the experiement to work correctly.  Seeing as the electrical charge produced can be impacted by the moisture in the air, we decided that this method would not be a viable means to power our theme park ride.

We then moved on to picking out a book.  Our top two contenders are Goodbye to Shady Grove by Bill Peet and The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein.  We're still up for unique books that would translate well into a theme park ride.  The goal is for the book to be memorable and unusual.  It also helps if the book ties in with our MESA theme this year.  Goodbye to Shady Grove is about some forest animals that get displaced due to development.  They hop a ride on a train, which takes them to a poluted city, where they are horrified by the chemicals being dumped into the water supply, etc...  The train then travels back out to the countryside, where they find a different little grove to make their home in. 

Please look and see if you have a different book you think would make an ideal story book theme park ride.  In the past, my groups have had great success with books that the general public might not have read before.  This perks the judge's interest more than books like The Cat in the Hat, etc...

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Scratch

Be sure to download Scratch with a parent and start learning how to design computer programs today!