Amusement Park
In this unit, 4th and 5th graders will focus on how business owners use theme and creative thinking to generate revenue as well as how amusement park rides demonstrate Newton’s three laws of motion (physics).
Key Vocabulary
budget
motion
theme
revenue
physics
Isaac Newton
momentum
inertia
Key Vocabulary
budget
motion
theme
revenue
physics
Isaac Newton
momentum
inertia
Links
Roller coaster Interactive Challenge
Economics video (3 min.)
Supply and Demand video (5 min.)
Green Screen (Doink app) video
How to use Doink, the green screen app (10 min.)
Where are amusement parks in the US? (map)
Parks Today
Disney World
Busch Gardens
Universal Studios
Parks from the Turn of the Century
Cedar Point history video
Photos to Analyze: Buckeye Lake Amusement Park 1938
Scenes from 1920's Glen Echo Park, Maryland
Old Amusement Parks PBS - Part 2 (watch first two minutes only)
Photos of early carousels
Turn of the Century video (20 min.)
Watch "The Science of Disney Imagineering: Design and Models" You can find it in Safari Montage. (30 min.)
The Students Will Know:
The Students Will Be Able to Do:
- There are many facets of amusement parks.
- All of these facets are considered by business owners in order to make amusement parks successful.
- The three laws of motion are evident in everything that moves, including amusement park rides.
- Business owners use theme and creative thinking to generate revenue.
- Isaac Newton was a scientist and mathematician who discovered the three laws of motion.
- The three laws of motion are a part of science called physics.
- Older amusement parks and new amusements parks have many attractions in common.
- Culture influences how people define and look for amusement.
- Centripetal force pulls objects toward the center of a circle.
- There are many factors involved in making financial decisions.
- Financial decisions affect both producers and consumers.
- There are many facets of amusement parks, including but not limited to: economics, physics, attractions, theme, characters, people, etc.
- There are inherent rules to the way things move (Newton’s three laws of motion).
- Business owners use theme and creative thinking to generate revenue.
- The influences of modern culture and “Turn of the Century” culture on amusement parks.
- There are many factors that play into making financial decisions.
- There are both positive and negative consequences to opportunity cost.
The Students Will Be Able to Do:
- Apply and identify the three laws of motion
- Brainstorm many ideas and solutions
- Organize items into like categories
- Draw conclusions and inferences
- See a topic from varied perspectives
- Use creative problem solving to find solutions
- Make adjustments to experiments based on outcomes
- Communicate through written expression
- Identify sentences, phrases, and words that are important in a text
- Create a web using commonalities
- Create a paragraph to summarize a text
- Make comparisons
- Make observations
- Draw a diagram
- Complete a Venn-Diagram
- Generate Questions
- Revise and refine solutions
- Make and evaluate decisions using criteria
- Create and complete analogies and metaphors