Discovery Place Field Trip - Speed

Reflection by Sammy S.
I watched my snowmobile zoom down the track, and tilted side to side on the identical one I was sitting in. I grinned as I realized I had won first place on the arcade-like game located in the Speed Exhibit in Discovery Place. My visit there wasn't all fun and games, though I had a great time.

The first area I went to was a weird machine, but when I stuck a penny into the slot and turned the crank, I was amazed. The penny went about 300 mph, so fast that when it hit a barrier, it bent or broke. After I tired of this, I went around looking at all the exhibits, drawn to the ones that looked the most interesting, like the car race, the snowmobile race, the Omnimax Theatre, and the Make-Your-Own-Car screen on one of the computers. Then, after I'd combed the area for more excitement, I settled down into all the information.

As I went around the exhibits, skimming over the information, I came across a formula: speed = distance/time. I knew I'd heard that somewhere, and within seconds I knew where - the first class on our unit on force and motion. I went on, uncovering more facts from science; review of Newton's laws of motion, friction, gravity, and even sighting an exhibit copying how we were going to build a roller coaster. I also found real-life application to all the things we'd learned in class - information on sand boarding, extreme sports, and crash tests.

All in all, I really enjoyed the Discovery Place field trip. I hope we can do it again someday. It really helped to reinforce the concepts I learned in class. Speed is one elusive thing, but there's nothing more fun!