Background

Materials

     For the project, we need a LEGO NXT Kit, which is a box of lego parts and robot parts that you can program and control. We are controlling the NXT program with a phone. We also got a bag of K'Nex pieces. We bought some K'Nex tracks and K'Nex chains and K,Nex gears from eBay. We also bought four K'Nex roller coaster sets, two cost about thirty dollars each and two more that cost about forty dollars each. The total cost is about $565.

Category	Projected Cost
Roller Coaster Tycoon	$19.99
Lego NXT kit (a box of legos and robot pieces)	$349.99
Styrofoam Board	$15.00
Four Lego K’Nex Roller Coaster Kits	$139.98
Extra part bought from eBay or Amazon (extra gears, chain links, and roller coaster tracks)	$40.48
Total	$565.44

Project Timeline

The following table is a basic time chart that describes approximately how long each part of the project will take, and when to start the next portion of the project.

	Week
Task	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Designing the Roller Coaster and getting supplies	x	x	x
Building the Roller Coaster (Track and Support)			x	x	x	x
Programming the NXT					x	x	x
Testing						x	x	x	x
Final report preparation									x	x

FAQ

 Is it expensive to build this roller coaster?

     It depends on what materials you already have. You might need to buy an extra K'Nex kit or some legos, but for what we are building, it was not enough for buying just the kit. So we went to eBay to buy some extra pieces. eBay and amazon are good places to get extra parts when you need them.

If we were to build our roller coaster, how extravagant can we make it?

     It depend on what materials you have and how much you are willing to get. The more extravagant you want your roller coaster, the more parts you may need, and the more expensive it will be. We do encourage to build your own roller coaster, especially if you already have different K'Nex kits. Since K'Nex pieces can be built in any way no matter what set you have.