Students in regular and honors physics took a trip to California’s Great America today to experience physics concepts they had been learning in class in the real world.

The purpose of the trip was to allow students to apply what they had learned in the classroom in the amusement park on roller coasters and to serve as an unofficial class trip for the freshmen.

“I think that it’s really neat to learn about this stuff in class but then actually go out on rides and actually get to experience it and feel if you feel lighter or heavier,” physics teacher Scott Pflaumer said. “And hopefully you will now at this point know why that is the case.”

Although the students were required to finish a short lab about which parts of the ride they felt heavier and which parts they felt lighter, the rest of the time spent at the park was free time.

“I think it’s a really great opportunity for all of us to just relax and celebrate the end of a great school year,” Jimmy Lin (9) said. “I think it’s really interesting to be able to apply what we had learned in a classroom and take it into a real world scenario where we can take our knowledge and use it in real life.”

Many students had been to the park before, but after having taken the physics course, several experienced it in a new light.

“I really was pleasantly surprised that there were some rides like delirium that I had never been on before and they really surprised me about how fun they were,” Shaya Zarkesh (9). “The physics aspect was also really interesting, I never thought I could analyze roller coasters so physically until I took this class.”

The Class of 2018 will be participating in a ropes course in the fall of 2015, where each advisory will travel to its respective location and perform various outdoor activities.