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Roller Coaster

Design

Project Rubrics

for Assessment

Your grade on this project will be determined by scores in the following areas:

• Journal (20% of project grade) -- keep a journal of your progress and each day make entries in the following categories:
  • What did you do today?
  • What went right/ what went wrong?
  • How far along are you on your project's timeline?
  • What light bulbs went on that could change your direction?
  • What will you do tomorrow?
• Pre-assessment (part of your journal grade) -- make this your journal entry for the first day. Answer the following questions in your journal:
  • What do you know already about the safety requirements for roller coasters (ie restraint systems, maximum accelerations, minimum corner radius, minimum corner banking, etc.)?
  • What do you know already about the variables that should be included in a roller coaster to make it fun and appealing for customers?
  • What other things do you currently already know about roller coasters?
  • What do you already know about researching on the internet?
  • What additional uses of the internet are you aware of other than research?
• Daily effort (10% of project grade) -- whether you are keeping on task, and maintaining dignity through frustrating times.
• Finished product (40% of project grade)
  • Quality of workmanship
  • Completeness of project
• Use of Technology (20% of project grade) -- whether you used technology appropriately to help you.
• Evaluation (10% of project grade) -- your reflections on how to improve the overall project. Directions for this part are on the Evaluation Page.

Your score in each of the above areas will be determined by the following criteria:

Area	Earns 1 point	Earns 2 points	Earns 3 points	Weight factor
Journal - neatness	poorly organized difficult to read	nice organization neatly written	very well organized very neat	.02
Journal - updated	days missing	days all there but some written in late	daily entries made	.06
Journal - complete	many categories missing	few categories missing	pre-assessment and all categories present	.12
Effort - class time	often found off task	rarely found off task	always seen on task	.05
Effort - frustration	often reacted to setbacks inappropriately	rarely reacted to setbacks inappropriately	always seen reacting to setbacks appropriately	.05
Product - quality	sloppy general appearance and/or product doesn't work	product has good general appearance and works adequately	products looks good and works well	.20
Product - completeness	did not meet criteria listed in third column	met all criteria listed but only adequately	Fall physics: determined funness, determined safety features CAD class: blueprints contain fun and safety aspects, met dimensions Materials class: material spec list, flow chart, built to blueprints, shop safety Spring physics: instrument for analysis, final analysis	.20
Use of technology	did not use internet or other technology resources	moderate use of internet and other technology	contacted experts and excellent use of internet and other technology	.20
Evaluation	did not contribute to evaluation page	contributed minimally to evaluation	contributed substantially to evaluation	.10

How you will be graded:

You will receive a score of 1, 2 or 3 in each category based on the table above. Your score is then multiplied by the weight factor for that category. Your weighted scores are then totalled.

 

Explanation of weight factors:

The weight factor for each category is calculated by multiplying two other factors together: 1) the percentage of the overall project grade that area counts for, and 2) the portion that category is of the area it is in.

The journal counts for 20% of your project grade, but is divided into 3 categories. Neatness counts for 10% of your journal score, so it has a weight factor of .02. This was obtained by mulitiplying .2 by .1. Updatedness counts for 30% of your journal score so it has a weight factor of .06 (.2 x .3). Completeness counts for 60% so it has a weight factor of .12 (.2 x .6).

Effort counts for 10% of your project grade and is divided into 2 categories. Class time counts for 50% of your effort score, so it has a weight factor of .05. Dealing with frustration is 50% of your effort score, so it has a weight factor of .05.

The finished product counts for 40% of your project grade and is divided into two categories, each counting for 50% of the product score. The quality and completeness categories each get a weight factor of .20.

Use of technology is not further subdivided and counts for 20% of your project grade, so it has a weight factor of .20.

Your evaluation of the project counts for 10% and has a weight factor of .10.

 

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