BonBon-Land turns rides into hands-on science lessons

About 900 eighth-grade pupils took part in a hands-on science day at BonBon-Land amusement park on Friday, using the rides to learn about acceleration, movement and g-force, DR reports.

The pupils came from schools in the municipalities of Slagelse, Ringsted and Sorø. The event was organised around the idea that science is more engaging when students can experience it physically.

One g corresponds to the force normally caused by gravity on Earth. At the ride Hankatten, pupils could experience g-force while the rotating ride moved up and down above the ground.

“It makes it more exciting to learn this way instead of just sitting in a classroom,” eighth-grader Aske Hans Jacobsen told DR while sitting in the Cobra Tower, 40 metres above BonBon-Land, waiting to be dropped in free fall.

Students Fabian Kruzie and Emil Nowak also took part in the rides, although they may remember the experience more than Newton’s laws and g-forces.

The day’s instructors were HTX students from ZBC Slagelse, who were stationed at different rides. Each ride was linked to a science topic and was intended to give the pupils both entertaining and educational insights, showing that science involves more than formulas on paper.

Sebastian Melgaard, one of the instructors, said he hoped the pupils would develop some of the same interest in science that he had gained through the event. He took part in one of the first groups to attend the STEM day.

“It clearly awakened my interest in science. It gives you the feeling that it actually exists, and that you do not just have to sit there and believe a teacher,” he said.

Mads Munkholm Teglskov, head of the HTX programme at ZBC Slagelse, said the event also benefited the student instructors because they had to understand the material thoroughly and explain speed, acceleration and forces to younger pupils.

Project manager Nicklas Grønbech Larsen Frederiksen said the aim was to create enthusiasm for science by allowing pupils to experience it physically. The event also offered an alternative school day, with looser surroundings, pizza and candy floss alongside the academic activities.