April 28, 2023: Physics Day at Six Flags St. Louis - 

[] SLAPT Curriculum Materials from previous years
[] Six Flags main information page, order forms, and Curriculum Materials

Where: Six Flags, St. Louis; Interstate 44 at Eureka, MO.
When: Friday April  28, 2023, 9am-5pm 

Accelerometers and vests will no longer be provided by Six Flags to conduct experiments on MR. FREEZE: Reverse Blast. Schools will need to come prepared with their own devices if desired.

Link to the Six Flags Physics Day page with a series of resource documents:  HERE     

 Below are SLAPT Six Flags Resources from previous years and will be archived here for reference.

Resources for Ride Analysis at Six Flags, St. Louis

• Teacher Introduction
• Suggestions for making measurements
• Constructing measurement equipment
• How to Measure Acceleration Power Point (if you can't click and download try right click and select "save.... as" ) additional Notes: NOTES
• Six Flags St. Louis Park Map
• Student Introduction (Word,.pdf)
• Answer keys to most rides are available -- email Rex Rice for more information.

Dear Physics Teacher:

Getting the Most out of the Materials

The curriculum materials posted here have been specifically developed to help you integrate amusement park physics activities within your physics curriculum. These materials have evolved over the past twenty years due to work by area physics teachers with influence from physics educators nationwide.

In order to get the most from Physics Day and these materials, please note the following:

1. We suggest that you have your students focus on a small number of the activities at the park (for instance, one roller coaster and one or two circular motion rides). There are many more activities included on this website than could ever be done in one day at the park. We would rather provide too many activities than too few, so we have left it up to you, the teacher, to decide which activities are most appropriate for your students. To help you, most of the ride activities have a qualitative section consisting of conceptually oriented questions and a quantitative section that involves calculations. The “full” versions might be appropriate for a quantitatively based junior/senior level physics course. We have edited the full versions to create a shorter version for each ride that may be more appropriate for some more conceptually, less quantitatively oriented physics courses. These are labeled “short.” We have also included versions, which have been edited for use with the freshman physics classes at Clayton High School that might be appropriate for similar groups from other schools. There are two versions of the CHS materials labeled “freshman (regular)”, and “freshman (honors).” This website contains pdf and Microsoft Word versions of the materials. The Microsoft Word versions are included to provide you with the ability to edit materials so that they best fit your curriculum. Please feel free to modify these materials as you see fit.

1. We strongly encourage you to use these materials throughout the year as they fit in to your physics course. Physics Day at Six Flags will be a far more valuable experience for your students if they are already familiar with the types of analyses that are used on the rides prior to going to Six Flags. Activities that your students do not do at the park can be modified and used for pre-trip preparation, post-trip follow-up, or anywhere else they fit into your curriculum. This "beyond Physics Day" use is possible because this website includes movies and data files for a large number of the rides. We have also included some activities which do not involve the rides themselves, but which may be related to the field trip as a whole.   See the Appendices linked above.

1. The park provides a picnic combo meal as an option that could make the students' time at the park more productive. The picnic combo meal is served buffet style in the World's Fair Pavilion; there is little or no waiting, it is "all you care to eat;" and the large, sheltered tables in the Pavilion allow students to work on the ride analyses while eating lunch. The food caterers require a definite cutoff date, so be sure to order tickets for the picnic combo meal well in advance of Physics Day.

1. Please note that the devices that are commonly called "accelerometers" do not measure acceleration! These devices, that we call Force Factor meters, can be calibrated to measure the ratio of the normal force in the direction of measurement to the magnitude of the gravitational force. That ratio, the Force Factor, is a multiplier that can be used to find the normal force on an object. In other words, the Force Factor in a given direction multiplied by the magnitude of the gravitational force equals the normal force in that direction. Because of this, the labels on the graphs included in the materials do not read Acceleration vs. Time, but rather Force Factor vs. time. These ideas are explained in detail in the Suggestions for Making Measurements document. Additionally, there is a PowerPoint presentation called How to Measure Acceleration that you might want to use with your students (if power point will not open, plz right click the link and select "save.....as"). There is an accompanying student document called How to Measure Acceleration Notesthat you can use (with the PowerPoint presentation) to give them practice with the process of converting from a reading on the force factor meter to an acceleration value. In any event, you will want to be certain that your students understand how to interpret “accelerometer” readings.

1. The St. Louis Area Physics Teachers association works closely with Six Flags St. Louis to promote Physics Day. Join the St. Louis Area Physics Teachers email list for free by visiting this ONLINE FORM. Doing so will ensure that you receive regular email updates of the events and activities of the group, including the latest information about Physics Day at Six Flags St. Louis. SLAPT is a non-profit group of physics teachers (middle school, high school, and college) that organize regular workshops for the purpose of improving the physics education. SLAPT is also the local “section” of the American Association of Physics Teachers.

It is hoped that you and your students will find these materials conducive to an enjoyable and educational day at Six Flags. We are very interested in your reactions and comments about this set of materials as we continue to revise/edit the materials. Any help you can give will be appreciated.

If you have any questions about these materials or anything else related to Physics Day at Six Flags St. Louis, please feel free to contact any one of us:


Gabe DelaPaz, Clayton High School
Jen Meyer, Parkway Central High School