Follow Up - OT - 1 Samuel

Last weekend I taught a class on David and Goliath from 1 Samuel. We talked about how potential energy gets converted into usable energy, and we tried to couple potential energy from a raised marble to do something interesting with the help of a paper rollercoaster.

We started off trying to make a loop-the-loop, which I was able to get working with my kids the evening before. However the supplies I had in the class included stiff card, which turned out not to be well suited for this, since the rollercoaster only works if it's smooth, whereas the card was prone to having sharp bends and kinks in it. We quickly readjusted the plan to make a simpler rollercoaster with a dip and a raise, with the raised part passing through the head of this picture of Hulk Goliath.

The initial version didn't work because the starting point of the marble wasn't high enough. However, the kids had been inspired by singing "Scripture Power" during singing time earlier, and we put that idea to use by grabbing some nearby scriptural texts of sufficient heft, and propping up the rollercoaster with them. That did the trick, and so spiritual potential was indeed used to power the rollercoaster, if not quite in the way I had originally intended!

Our rollercoaster in action. We built it within 20 minutes with a solid team effort (5 kids working on it).

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