Skatepark Model Making

This past week we made our first ramp model. As teams you each will be making a model park that should fit on two 22 x 28 Foam Core Boards.

Each student should be working on one (1) skate ramp or obstacle that works with the dimensions of the half-pipe we built together.

Find some great Ramp ideas here

Here is the 6' Halfpipe model template we used for our model ramps:

Or try this bank ramp template:

Materials for Model Making

Material for model making include:

- Card Stock, Poster Board, or Cereal Boxes for Top Sheeting of Ramps

- Matte Board, Chip Board, or Foam Core for Sides of Ramps

- Wood Sticks for Framing and Supports

- Wooden Dowels for Coping

- Paint Markets, Paint, or Sharpies for Ramp Art

Tools Include:

- White PVA Glue (Elmer's, etc.)

- Glue Gun (with Adult Supervision)

- Sharp Scissors

- Exacto Knife (with Adult Supervision)

- Light Sand Paper for sanding edges

- Blue Painter Tape for Temporary Hold

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How to find the length of a quarter pipe with a transition radius of and a height of feet

There is a lot of math behind building skate ramps. Below is how we figure out the transition radius on ramps.

According to the Pythagorean theorem, given a right triangle with sides of length a, b, and c, the following equation will always be true: a2+b2=c2 So we make a right triangle:

As you can see above, the hypotenuse ( longest edge ) of the triangle is the transition radius of 7 feet, the length of the second edge (vertical) is equal to the height minus the transition radius, 7-3=4 feet, and the length of the third edge is unknown and what we are trying to solve for.

All that remains is to substitute a=length, b=4 feet, and c=7 feet into the Pythagorean theorem and solve for length.

length2+42=72

length2+16=49

length2=33

length≈5.744563 feet

Here is a great Ramp calculation app: https://www.xtremeskater.com/ramp-plans/ramp-tool/