We made homemade roller coasters in school
Kidsday reporter Christopher Antinoro with his roller coaster. Credit: Emily Cole
Do you like to ride on roller coasters? Ever wonder how the roller coasters are made? You can make your own with materials right in your own house. I made one, and so did many of my classmates as part of a school project.
You will need a few different materials that you can find right at home: tape, two foam cups, paper towel rolls (without the paper towels) and toilet paper rolls (without the toilet paper), and a pizza box. After you get the materials together, it is time to put them together to make your roller coaster.
First, you need to build the foundation by getting four paper towel tubes and taping two next to each other on each side. Then you start building down with small or big cardboard tubes. Last, you make the end by taping the end of a small toilet paper roll.
When we made our model roller coaster, we used tape to put the cardboard tubes together and create twists and turns. We used the cups and the pizza box to hold up the roller coaster. To test our model roller coaster, we used a marble as the passenger. It went through the twists and turns pretty fast.
Making this was pretty easy. Good luck when you make your own model, and remember to have fun!
Emily Cole and Kathy Devine’s fourth-grade class, Waverly Avenue Elementary School, Holtsville
