Physics lessons come alive aboard rides at Calaway
Calgary high school students screamed at the top of their lungs while riding roller-coasters and hopping on other rides Friday to experience the physics calculations they are learning about at school.
About 800 students got handson learning at Calaway Park’s Physics Day. For over 10 years, Calaway Park has partnered with the University of Calgary to teach students certain physics lessons outside of the classroom, with students riding roller-coasters and earning mini degrees in roller coastero logy.
“They ’re just equations until you get out and experience the types of forces on your body that relate to the equations you’ve been talking about back in the classroom. You have to bring that science to life,” said University of Calgary professor Phil Langill.
The students each receive a roller coastero log y workbook written by Langill, who is an astrophysicist. The students use the workbooks to figure out physics problems on forces, energy and momentum, as they test 10 different rides.
“The workbooks have questions about the rides, like how they’re built, how they run and the physics behind them,” said Langill.
“I get them to stand back, look at that giant roller-coaster and try to figure out a way to measure how fast the car is going and what kind of distance the car covers in a certain amount of time.”
An example of one lesson the students learned was that the Vortex roller-coaster, which is approximately 20 metres tall, uses gravity from the first drop to propel the car through the two inverted loops of the ride.
After experiencing the drop for themselves, the students calculated gravitational force and acceleration.
The park’s general manager Bob Williams said the kids seemed enthusiastic to learn while riding roller-coasters.
“It’s not just a school’s-out-day where they ’re coming to play. They have workbooks and their instructors are here. You can see them at picnic tables working after they ride each ride,” Williams said.
Langill said he has undergraduate students who join him to teach at Physics Day who were once high school students participating in the same activities and filling out the workbook.
“That’s the legacy of being able to do this for some number of years,” said Langill.
Last week, the park also hosted junior high students, who focused more on the gears, pulleys and other mechanics that control the rides.
According to Williams, the Physics Day program was started to improve the park’s community outreach and provide children an fun educational environment.