It can be hard to concentrate on anything but summer during the final days of school. Students at Bryan Middle School got to think summerwhile learning about science by building their own water slides.
“The end of the school year can be kids getting squirrelly,” Ms. Ericka Rogers, Science Teacher said. “But activities and experiments like this can help them to stay on task and stay focused.”
Fun Plex gave a couple dozen schools in the metro supplies to build water slides; and the park is working on one of its own.
“We wanted to get students thinking about these things just don't appear hear,” Katie Anderson, Fun Plex General Manager said. “There is a lot of engineering, a lot of design, a lot of manufacturing that goes into it and it’s such a fun process all the way through.”
Rockin' Rapids is the park's first double rider slide. It’s over five stories tall, and with 1200 feet of sliding fun. The brand new water attraction will feature two tube slides collectively moving 3,000 gallons of water per minute.
“I was watching and I was like oh my god I need to try that out,” Jazmin Corona, 8th grade student said.
Trying to build their own slides gives the students a new appreciation for the real thing.
“It’s hard because of all the turns and curves they had to do and built it,” Kimberly Cruz, 8th grade student said.
“ I feel like it’s just putting plastic on a curved line,” Corona said. “But it takes much more than that.”
Students must think like engineers.
They have to first think about the steepness of the slide,” Rogers said. “They want their man to slide and not fall off, we're looking at gravity and the pull of gravity and how he is getting to slide down the slide. Of course, friction.”
Fun Plex's new waterslide Rockin' Rapids is still a few weeks away from opening. But they are expecting riders to get to enjoy it yet this summer.
The students are looking forward to it too, after learning it’s not as easy as it looks.
