Bethel Park High School physics students take learning to the limit at Kennywood

Bethel Park High School physics students recently traded their classroom for Kennywood Amusement Park, applying real-world data collection and analysis to some of the park's most iconic rides.

The annual Physics Day at Kennywood turns the West Mifflin amusement park into a hands-on laboratory, giving students the opportunity to observe and calculate the forces at work on roller coasters and other rides. Students gathered data, photos, and video at various attractions before completing a final project analyzing the physics behind one of them.

Using tools such as accelerometers and stopwatches, students measured and analyzed concepts including velocity, acceleration, gravitational force, and energy transfer — principles they had studied in the classroom — on rides including the Steel Curtain and Phantom's Revenge.

Kennywood's annual Education Days, typically held in May, are designed for students in grades 3-12 and offer schools exclusive park access tailored to curriculum goals. For Bethel Park's physics students, the trip offered a practical, memorable way to see the science behind the thrills.