One of the first “roller-coaster” rides in the U.S. was actually a short coal railway in Pennsylvania that hauled coal downhill between mines and used mules to bring the empty cars back up the hill.

Eighth-grade engineering students uses physics principles to build marble roller coasters at Pleasantville Middle School in Westchester County, NY.

When she was in seventh grade, Rogers State University junior Olivia Graham fell in love with science and math on a field trip. Graham, now a chemical engineering major but then a middle schooler from ...