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Eighth frade students from the Lion Core at Chisago Lakes Middle School enjoyed learning both science and math while visiting Wild Mountain's Wild Chutes Snow Tubing hill for the "Science of Snow Tubing" field trip last Friday, February 29.

The "Science of Snow Tubing," an educating and entertaining program at Wild Mountain, allowed students to experience a hands-on connection with math and science concepts such as average speed, distance, mass, acceleration, energy, and the force of friction.

Students had fun working together as small teams in this outside experiment to collect data at different stations on the hill, including using stop watches to time tubes traveling down the chutes, measuring distance tubes traveled, measuring angle of the hill with a giant protractor, and weighing tubes, etc.

Not only did each student measure data, they also were the data while enjoying a fun tube ride down the chute. Students will use the data collected to discover how to easily calculate average speed, acceleration, and energy, etc., when back in the classroom.

The Lion Core teaching staff assisted by additional staff from the middle school and volunteer parents facilitated stations, thanks to the aid from both Dan Raedke and Nancy Johnston from Wild Mountain. This exciting learning adventure was followed up by a couple hours of free time to enjoy snow tubing with friends and teachers. Students had great fun racing individually and snow tubing together in groups.

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