Engineering Week 2020 kicks off in St. Pius X G.N.S. with visiting engineers.
For Engineering Week, our class did an experiment with an engineer named Larry Clarke. He told us we would be making a rollercoaster with masking tape and pipe insulation. We had to make a marble go through our roller coaster and into a plastic cup.
It was really interesting, learning about the science of it all. Larry told us that if it’s going down a ramp it’s releasing stored energy. The marble keeps on wanting to go straight but the momentum and a special force keeps the marble on the spiral or a loopty loop. But the marble loses lots of energy on these obstacles so there was a lot of trial and error with it. We also made tunnels by placing one foam pipe on top of another, to prevent the marble from escaping too soon. If you were doing a hump you had to make sure there was enough energy to get over it.
After a lot of hard work and teamwork, we had all finished our rollercoasters. We all took turns showing off our rollercoasters. Most groups had achieved the goal of getting the marble in the cup, but not quite all of us, but Larry had taught us that engineering is all about trial and error and not everything works first time.
We enjoyed the experiment a lot, particularly working with our group. We also learned lots about engineering. It helped many of us to realise how much we enjoyed engineering.
HAPPY ENGINEERING WEEK !
By Hannah and Alison – Ms. Kelly’s 6th Class
