Intel Education: It's a Wild Ride: Rubric for the Home Roller Coaster Criteria & Scoring

The home roller coaster project is a performance assessment in both math and science. A handout for students (and parents) defines criteria and scoring for completing the project at home and includes questions that will be completed during the assessment in class.

Roller Coaster Project Criteria, Scoring Rubric, and In-Class Assessment

Name:___________________
Partner(s):_________________________________
(Include parent or family members if they helped)

Design a three-element marble roller coaster (may use other car type).

Work in groups of up to three people.

Deliver to school by May 10.

Keep a journal of the process. Record in composition book.

Get parent signature.

Fill out scoring rubric below before bringing the roller coaster to school. Explain your score (meets mastery, needs redesign) by writing comments in the box. See example below.

*Example*	Meets Mastery	Needs Redesign
Force		Marble only made it through the first two elements - too many elements
Design elements	Spiral, loop, two camel backs, and an inversion

Scoring Rubric for Home Roller Coaster

	Meets Mastery	Redesign Needed
Material Design: Made from scratch, open-topped, sturdy
Force: Marble stays on track entire time, only gravitational force used, marble completes the circuit
Design Elements: Has three or more elements
Size: Minimum of 75 cm in length, width, and height
Journal- Description of the process: includes date, time and money spent, and where materials were acquired. Describes problems and solutions.

Checklist for Bonus Points:

Included setting, surroundings		Included more than three elements
Designed continuous circuit		other

****Parent Signature:___________________
I have seen my son/daughter's project and read their comments on the Scoring Rubric.

Performance Assessment Conducted During Class:

My roller coaster's top speed is ___________. Record on class chart.
The average speed is ___________. Record on class chart.
My roller coaster's top height is ___________. Record on class chart.
The mass of my marble is ___________. Record on class chart.
I used the photogates for acceleration. It recorded ______. Record on class chart.
Calculate the angle of the first drop ___________. Record on class chart.
Below are the results of the experiments that I tried with different weights of marbles (use scientific explanation):

Sketch the design of your roller coaster below.

What materials did you use?

Describe what was good and bad about the materials you chose.

Pick a segment of your journal to share.

Be prepared to answer any of these questions orally in class:

How does the ride demonstrate the law of inertia?
How does the ride demonstrate the law of unbalanced forces? (Newton's 2nd, mass x acceleration = force)
How does the ride demonstrate action-reaction pairs of forces?
What transformations of energy are taking place in the ride? (forms and types of energy)

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