Happy President's Day!

Ms.Spellman's students!

You've just been given a three day weekend! What are you going to do? Nooo,... not go to Disneyland! Your roller coaster comes due in 24 ..yes, twenty-four days. Make good use of your weekend and complete your project.

The sooner you complete it, the more time you will have to work out any last minute problems.

LEARN FROM PAST PROJECTS! Don't squander your time.

You can do this. I know you can. Do you?

Website Maintenance Difficulties

My website is temporarily unavailable for me to update. Until I can update it,  I will blog what occurred in class.

Students have entered three, new sections of key terms. We also watched some videos about plate tectonics, subduction, mid-ocean ridge, Pangaea and underwater sea vents. The links to all of the videos plus the list of key terms for #16 - 18 will be posted just as soon as the web page is available.

Some groups are already making good headway regarding their roller coasters. Twice this week, there have been about twenty students either working on their robot or their roller coaster. YES!! I am very proud of you.

Keep up the good work.

Earth's Interior & Plate Tectonics

We are learning about Earth's interior. Today we discussed Alfred Wegener's hypothesis of Pangaea, how the continents at one time were connected like a jigsaw puzzle.

This will be an exciting unit of learning about earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes.

Expect lots of fun while you learn.

Roller Coasters

Since I was out sick last week, we have been getting caught up on the project timeline for our roller coasters.

At this point in time, students should have:

• Had parents sign the project syllabus.
• Formed teams of three students.
• Decided where their will build their project.
• Drawn their blueprint with detailed measurements for their roller coaster.
• Created their materials list.

Students may buy six foot foam pipe insulation tubes from me for $ 0.98. This is an inexpensive way to create the idea track for this project.

Please email me if you have any questions.

Let's have fun learning about physics!!

State Work Sample: Roller Coasters

YES!! One of my favorite units is here. We'll begin work on our roller coaster this week.


Students will choose two friends to partner with for creating a functional roller coaster. The objective is for a marble (or similar object) to move from beginning to end without stopping. The track must consist of TWO hills (not counting the initial starting point) plus one directional turn. For more specific instructions, please visit my web-page for the roller coaster unit.

Get ready to roll!  ;)