Eighth-graders build indoor coaster

Posted Friday, March 17, 2006 7:23 PM | Contributed by onceler

Stretching out to the corners of the gymnasium, the indoor roller coaster at Royal Oak Intermediate School appears gargantuan compared to its creators. Twenty-four feet tall at its highest point and occupying 10,000 square feet, the fully-functional ride towers over the 135 eighth-graders who are its designers, builders and decorators. Students and four teachers have spent thousands of hours measuring, sawing, constructing, painting and decorating the wooden structure over the last three weeks.

Read more from The San Gabriel Valley Tribune and also view pictures.

SFDLdan

Friday, March 17, 2006 7:25 PM
wowzaz!, pretty cool.
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Neuski

Friday, March 17, 2006 7:30 PM
That's great!
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DawgByte II

Friday, March 17, 2006 7:45 PM
DawgByte II's avatar
That's pretty sweet. Too bad it's unmanned. A single-person car would be even cooler.

Looking at the pictures, the surface looks flat. I don't quite understand how the "train" or coaster car they are using will stick to the track, unless I am missing a detail that they mentioned.

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janfrederick

Friday, March 17, 2006 9:16 PM
janfrederick's avatar
I think they'll have Tony Hawk skate it. ;)
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ApolloAndy

Friday, March 17, 2006 9:42 PM
ApolloAndy's avatar
Outside guide wheels that wrap around the "track" from above.
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dexter

Saturday, March 18, 2006 2:55 AM
Why didn't we do that when I was in school?
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robert mosley

Sunday, March 19, 2006 5:13 AM
I want to ride it!
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CP Chris

Sunday, March 19, 2006 7:38 AM
No you don't. I saw video of it on the news. The "turns" are not really curves, more like a series of boards cut at an angle to eventually produce a curve, something like \_/ although maybe not quite that extreme. It also made it about a quarter of the way into the loop before violently falling back. It's still a cool idea though, and an awesome school project.
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janfrederick

Sunday, March 19, 2006 2:22 PM
janfrederick's avatar
Bending the wood probably takes more time and skill than was available.

I wonder what they do with all the materials when they are finished. Bonfire?

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Coasterphan

Monday, March 20, 2006 1:23 AM
^^^^^^^^^ I'm sure that they'll pull a Six Flags, and scrap it. For now on, that will be the catch phrase for the destruction of a coaster.

"They Six Flagged It"

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"E"Coster Gurl

Monday, March 20, 2006 4:40 AM
That's pretty awesome. I wish my school had a gymnasium so we could have done something like that.
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escher26

Monday, March 20, 2006 4:42 PM
Man, that is something I would SOOO do with my students if we had a bit larger of a school... (we don't even HAVE a gym :) )

-Escher

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milo

Monday, March 20, 2006 6:19 PM
you had a gymnasium? you little hucklberries are lucky! in my day all we had was a little mound of dirt to roll around in, and we liked it. boy those were the days....
*** This post was edited by milo 3/20/2006 1:51:34 PM ***
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TheRealCP

Monday, March 20, 2006 9:30 PM
TheRealCP's avatar
Cute!
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RatherGoodBear

Monday, March 20, 2006 10:46 PM
We had a gym when I was in grade school.

Actually it was a gymna-cafe-torium. We knew all about multi-tasking before there was such a word.

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P18

Tuesday, March 21, 2006 3:13 AM
We had a gym in elementary school, but then next to it was the "Cafetorium". We upgraded to seperate gym/cafateria/auditorium in middle school, then in HS all of the above and a pool. I would have loved to do that kind of thing in middle or HS, or maybe since our HS had an indoor pool a waterslide would have been really awesome lol. Then again my old HS started a massive addition project the year after I graduated and rumor has it a water slide is actually in talks for the pool lol.
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RatherGoodBear

Wednesday, March 22, 2006 4:36 AM
^ No wonder why we're paying school taxes out the a**. :)
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P18

Wednesday, March 22, 2006 5:22 PM
True, I find a water slide not needed although the chances of it happening are very slim considering its probably a rumor. When I was there I found a few things that could have been done without like the arcade machines and photo booth in the one lounge. That stuff is more for college and not needed in a HS. That money could have been used to fund a roller coaster project in our gym :D. Our district is growing incredibly fast, just so many people. Within the last 3 years theres been a new middle school built, 2 new elementary schools, an addition to another elementary school, and 2 addition projects on the HS including the latest almost doubling of it's size bringing it to 2 middle schools, 4 elementary schools and a HS.
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