Eighth-graders build indoor coaster

wowzaz!, pretty cool.

That's great!

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.

I think they'll have Tony Hawk skate it. ;)

Outside guide wheels that wrap around the "track" from above.

Why didn't we do that when I was in school?

I want to ride it!

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.

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?

^^^^^^^^^ 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"

That's pretty awesome. I wish my school had a gymnasium so we could have done something like that.

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

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 ***

Cute!

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.

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.

^ No wonder why we're paying school taxes out the a**. :)

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.