How Much Time Is Required?

You should allow about 10-12 hours of class time distributed over several days. The time will be spent enrolling your class, getting necessary permission from the administration, collecting the things you need, and finding a place to roll the marbles. Then, students need time to build, test, and refine their ramps. Next, comes Marble Roll Day and data sharing and analysis.

Here are a few suggestions to help you maximize the time you have available:

• Introduce the challenge in class and have students design, build, and test the ramps outside of class.
• Block out a few hours during a morning or an afternoon to run Marble Roll Day and share data.
• Appoint a group of students to enter and send data during free time.
• Work on retrieving and analyzing data in small groups as time permits.
• Combine the activities into a couple of long days.

Be creative and do what works best for you.

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