Physics Labs at The Great Escape & SplashWater Kingdom

It has been a while that we all have been using the various "Outdoor Lab" packs which were designed, oh my, a decade ago.  Since that time, Great Escape has added rides and I have been playing with new investigations as well as messing with some of the existing ones.

Offered below are activities, some new and some modifications, for your perusal.  Feel free to download them and add them to your existing packs. 

Some random thoughts...

• My "Lab Pac for Physics"
  • has grown to 22 pages; each page requiring 15 - 25 minutes
  • offers lab activities on 10 different rides
  • some pages have many detailed sequential questions
  • some pages have more general questions which require the student to complete multiple steps to get to a single answer
• activities cover a variety of techniques including (but not limited to)
  • classical linear motion
  • free fall
  • KE - PE conversions
  • vector analysis
  • inclined planes
  • circular motion
  • G forces
  • friction
  • pendulums
  • wave phenomenon
  • grand scale approximations
  • unit conversions
• I have my students complete their choice of 12 pages
• I use this as the Lab Final and its grade counts!

• Support Pack of info students need but you don't need back
• Pre-Event Problems that students should complete ahead of time for practice; I use these as "bus tickets" and collect them as my students board the bus
• PPT to go over the pack in class
• The Question Pack which I give to the students a few days ahead of time with the suggestion that each team do as much ahead of time as possible
• A Little Bit About Me

Some pages with pics of the relevant part of the ride...

File Name	Topics Covered	The Ride
Boomerang1	KE&PE, acceleration, mu
Boomerang2	forces in a loop, minimum speed required
CanyonBlaster	centripetal force in a horizontal (almost) circle, G forces
Comet1	Work, Power, Energy up the 1st hill
Comet2	KE & PE work between top of 1st hill and apex of 1st camelback
Comet3	Energy lost due to friction, centripetal force, G forces
Comet4	classical motion (negative acceleration)
FlyingTrapeze1	Vector analysis of forces, centripetal force
FlyingTrapeze2	Centripetal force via characteristics of the circular path
SteaminDemon1	Work, Power, Energy up 1st hill
SteaminDemon2	KE & PE on the 1st drop
SteaminDemon3	Forces in the Loop
SteaminDemon4	Forces; front seat vs back seat
HighDivers1	Classical calcculations vs KE/PE calculations
HighDivers2	Momentum, Negative Acceleration, Grand Scale Approximations
MerryGoRound	Centripetal Forces
PirateShip	Pendulum, mu
WaterTubes Check back later for base data for this one	final velocity independent of path (KE PE), friction
WavePool	Wave phenomenon, grand scale approximation