Launch of "Ramp Races" S.T.E.M Division Unit

This week we launched a new unit, "Ramp Races" with Ms. Semrad's class at Jefferson. Collaborative groups will be creating and building a ramp design to try to achieve maximum speed for a marble traveling their course. They will be using key knowledge such as division of whole numbers (and perhaps touch on decimals) to calculate speed using the formula s=d/t. Students will be calculating speed for a up to 5 trials with their ramp, making revisions based on the results and peer feedback.

We launched the project with students viewing a variety of videos that showed the highest and fastest waterslides around there world. Students began thinking about the materials and scale of their ramp designs. They spent today creating their individual sketches then sharing the ideas with their group. Collaborative teams have the choice to vote on one design from their group or combine ideas to make a new design.

We'll culminate this unit with Ramp Race Day. Each team will get to do one trial with their ramp. All students will calculate speed for each group's ramp and submit their rankings and calculations to determine the fastest ramp. They're off to a great start!