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Some school projects are finished, turned in, and quickly forgotten. And then there are the ones your kids are still talking about long after they’re done. This paper roller coaster STEM project was definitely one of those.

My son, Ollie, originally built his roller coaster for a second-grade Advanced Academics assignment. The challenge was to create a working roller coaster using paper tracks and a marble, which turned out to involve a lot more engineering and problem-solving than you might expect from a pile of paper.

There was plenty of building, testing, adjusting, rebuilding…and chasing runaway marbles. But that trial and error ended up being one of the best parts of the project.

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Our Paper Roller Coaster STEM Project

We used paper roller coaster templates from Science Buddies to create the different tracks, curves, loops and supports.

Ollie used a cardboard box as his base and planned a course with multiple levels, drops, turns and loops. A plastic cup at the end served as the finish line for the marble. The goal wasn’t just to build something that looked like a roller coaster—the marble actually had to travel through the entire course and make it into the cup.

That was considerably harder than it sounds.

What You Need to Build a Paper Roller Coaster

Our version used pretty basic supplies, and we already had most of them at home:

• Paper roller coaster templates
• Paper or cardstock
• Cardboard box or another sturdy base
• Scissors
• Tape
• Marble
• Cup or container for the finish

Your exact supplies will depend on the design your child creates and the templates you use. We used colorful paper for ours, which made the finished roller coaster really fun and colorful, but it was also fairly flimsy. If we did it again, I’d probably use this thicker cardstock instead, especially for the tracks and supports. It’s from the same brand we used for the original project, but sturdier and better suited for something that needs to hold its shape.

A sturdy base was also especially helpful because the roller coaster became fairly large and three-dimensional as Ollie added more sections. And you’ll want more tape than you think you need. Paper roller coasters are not the place to be precious about tape.

How the Roller Coaster STEM Challenge Works

The basic idea is simple: build a track that allows a marble to travel from a starting point to the finish using gravity. Once kids begin adding hills, curves, drops and loops, however, they have to consider whether the marble will have enough speed to make it through each section without stopping or flying off the track.

That turns the activity into an engineering challenge. Instead of simply assembling pieces according to directions, kids can experiment with the layout, test different ideas and make changes based on what actually happens.

What Kids Learn From a Paper Roller Coaster

This project combines quite a bit of learning into one activity. Kids can see concepts like gravity, potential and kinetic energy, speed and momentum in action while also working through an engineering design problem.

For Ollie, a big part of the experience was troubleshooting. When the marble didn’t make it through the course, he had to figure out where it went wrong and what needed to change. Sometimes that meant adjusting the height of a track, reinforcing a support or reworking a section that looked good but simply didn’t work.

That’s one of the things I liked most about this project: the mistakes were actually part of the learning. The goal wasn’t just to make a cool-looking roller coaster. He had to make it work.

Want to see it in action? Watch the paper roller coaster test in my Instagram Reel.

What Was Harder Than We Expected

Paper is obviously lightweight, which is convenient for building but not always convenient for engineering. Tracks can sag, supports can shift, and a curve that looks perfectly fine can send a marble straight off the side.

We also found that getting one section to work didn’t necessarily mean it would still work once everything was connected. Changing the height or angle of one track could affect what happened farther along the course, so there was a lot of testing and adjusting as the coaster grew.

The more elaborate the design became, the more important the supports were too. Ollie’s coaster ended up going up, down and around itself several times, so keeping everything sturdy enough for repeated marble runs became part of the challenge.

Tips Before You Build Your Own

If your child is trying a similar paper roller coaster STEM project, these are the things I’d keep in mind after doing it ourselves:

• Start with a sturdy base. It makes the finished coaster easier to build, test and move.
• Test as you go. Don’t build the entire course before trying the marble. It’s much easier to troubleshoot one section at a time.
• Expect to make changes. A track that looks right may not actually work once the marble reaches it.
• Pay attention to height. The marble needs enough energy to make it through whatever comes next, especially loops and more complicated sections.
• Reinforce the supports. As the coaster gets taller and heavier, small shifts can change how the marble travels.
• Let kids troubleshoot. If you immediately fix every problem for them, they miss one of the most valuable parts of the project.

How much help a child needs will obviously depend on their age and the requirements of the assignment. Ollie was in second grade when he made his, so this was very much a kid project with support when he needed it—not something I expected him to engineer entirely alone.

The Finished Roller Coaster

Eventually, after plenty of adjustments, the marble could travel through Ollie’s course and reach the end. The finished roller coaster was colorful, slightly chaotic and definitely not structurally elegant—but it worked.

And I think that’s part of why I still like this project years later. The crooked tracks, excessive tape and obviously adjusted sections show the actual process of figuring something out. It wasn’t supposed to be a perfect model made by an adult; it was supposed to give a kid a problem and let him work through it.

It’s also apparently one of those school projects I felt the need to photograph from approximately 47 different angles before we finally got rid of it. In hindsight, I’m glad I did.

If your kids enjoy learning by building, experimenting and figuring things out for themselves, I’ve shared more ideas for encouraging that kind of curiosity in my Curious Kids post. You can also see what learning at home actually looks like for us, including the supplies, tools and hands-on resources we still use as the kids get older.