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CHS students keep all their marbles for physics class
Pulleys, glue, Styrofoam aid in teaching science
By Penny Rathbun
prathbun@starlocalnews.com
This is the twentieth year that Celina High School science teacher has assigned the building of a “better marble machine” competition.
The finished class projects are put on display for the public for one evening before the machines are destroyed. That is so next year's physics students will not be tempted to recycle someone's marble machine from a prior year.
The marble must go through a roller coaster wave, traverse a spiral and trip levers and pulleys to name just a few of the things it must do within the machine.
Students divide into teams in November and must provide video checks of the progress on their marble machines throughout the winter.
Physics problems are not the most difficult obstacles students face in the completion of the marble machine project. Carey, who is retiring this year, said students often have difficulty learning to work in teams.
He encourages them to work out their differences and finish the project. “There are no divorces in marble machine,” he frequently reminds students.
He said that students also learn that no matter how much effort is put into something, there are times when it doesn't work.
“Hard work just sometimes doesn't pay off in life,” he said.
Micki Gooch, CHS junior, found the project to be very useful. She and her teammates titled their marble machine Winter Funderland.
“I learned a lot about teamwork and how everyone has to work together. Planning was the biggest thing. To get our elevators done you had to think a lot about what would happen to the marble,” she said.
She wants to attend college at Texas A&M to study animal science or genetics.
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