110 Academics Coaster Creations Freshmen engineering students construct model roller coasters with custom kits. Over the past few years, the Engineering and Physics Department has experimented with various projects to expose freshmen to many engineering skills and hands-on design. For the 2024–25 school year, assistant professor of engineering and physics Dr. Taylor Williams took the lead on the introductory class, revamping an old classic: the model roller coaster project. Students in electrical, civil, mechanical and biomedical engineering were split into groups of five and tasked to model and construct replica roller coasters using different kits and parts. This roller coaster material was prepared by professor Rich Wells about a decade prior but was shelved for a number of years and exchanged for a community service project. “We have done service projects with community partners, but students were looking for something a little more tangible,” Williams said. There were challenges with implementing such a hands-on system. This was in large part due to the department’s growth in enrollment. Junior Amelia Slater worked as a teaching assistant for the class and explained the hurdles they faced. “Engineering has been growing so much at Harding that they kind of have to re-adapt [the introductory class] every year,” Slater said. “A lot of the roller coaster stuff is kind of old, so they need to replace a little bit of it.” Facing a staggering class size of 85 and outdated prebuilt kits, Williams did what engineers do best and designed his own solution. Over the course of the semester, he created his own kits out of pipes and laser-cut PVC for students to use. “That is what I was spending my time doing, trying to figure out this last semester,” Williams said. “We needed a platform for the students to build with after they created their designs.” Through trial and error, both Williams and the students experimented with this project, learning and working together. Freshman Gabriel Whitley reflected fondly on the memories he created working with his team. “I had a good group; I feel like we all did equal parts,” Whitley said. “Some of the people in my group I would have never met, especially those who switched majors.” The students also began work on the project relatively late in the semester, which forced teams to depend on each other. “We started during club week; that was tough, but it was fun to see them,” Slater said. “The kids who didn’t join a club could help those who were in it. It was good to see them learn to divide tasks.” After constructing, modeling and presenting each group’s coaster, Williams considered the class a success on behalf of the students and department. “Overwhelmingly, they said that it was their favorite part of class,” Williams said. “We had really good retention of our engineering students into the second semester—a lot higher than we have seen in quite a few years.” After the class was over, Williams continued to brainstorm and consider the future of the course. “I spent probably 10–15 hours over Christmas break, breaking down everything and organizing it and trying to figure out how to build up the kits for repeating it next year,” Williams said. There were even brief talks about using the roller coasters to promote the department and the ingenuity of the students who made them. “Last time I checked, there were still two of the designs still standing in the Ulrey,” Williams said. “We had been talking about possibly displaying them in the library.” The class ultimately helped introduce students to design, team building and problem solving and such lessons showed that learning does not have to happen nose-deep in a textbook or the classroom. Written by Asa Fowler
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