Wednesday
Fly your ride!
We'll be submitting proposals to the "Fly your ride" competition at the Air and Space Museum based on a "mouse-trap" car. Here's the website with the details. First we need to build a test ramp to match the one they will use in the competition.
Thursday
There are two types of mechanical energy, potential or kinetic. Mousetrap cars convert the potential energy stored in a spring into motion (kinetic energy). Friction is any force that opposes motion and is essential in a mousetrap car. Without it, the car would never move since frictionless wheels can't gain traction. Friction also slows and eventually stops the car. In these labs, you will measure the potential energy stored in the spring and predict how far the car can travel when converted into kinetic energy while taking into account the most important sources of friction.
Perform labs #2, 5, and 6 of the engineering document and complete the data analysis. Specifically:
Friday
Mousetrap car wars.
Energy and power are easily confused. The rate at which energy is released affects the power. By changing the length of the lever arm and the radius of the axel, you can affect the power of your car. To make your car go far, you need to release the energy slowly. To make it go fast, you need to release the energy quickly. You will prepare your car for both a speed and a distance competition. In addition, there will be an accuracy challenge which will require yet another configuration.
Monday
Mousetrap car quiz...
Things I might ask you on the quiz:
Week 2:
Suggestions for extension activities
Fly your ride!
We'll be submitting proposals to the "Fly your ride" competition at the Air and Space Museum based on a "mouse-trap" car. Here's the website with the details. First we need to build a test ramp to match the one they will use in the competition.
- Go to the website and read about the ramp's specification (be sure to check out the pictures of the ramp).
- On your own, sketch what the ramp looks like including any dimensions they provide. Do sketches from the top, side, and front views.
- Compare your sketch to other's at your table. Refine a single sketch that you all agree is the best representation.
- Figure out a way to build the ramp from the following materials:
1 4'x8' sheet of 3/8" plywood (for the sides)
1 4'x8' sheet of 1/4" plywood (for the surface)
18 8' 1"x2" furring strips
various screw fasteners - Present your design sketches to the class
- In pairs, draw your final design in Illustrator (to scale, 1 inch = 1 foot)
Thursday
- Discuss the "Makers" readings (word document or PDF)
- Define "energy"
- Watch the Gates TED talk on energy miracles
- Begin building a mousetrap car (follow the kit instructions).
- Teamtime - discuss class norms and values
- Reading outside of class: the chapter on Energy from "Energy for Future Presidents" (click here to download a PDF of the chapter). Write down three things you learned about energy from the article that you didn't know before. Make a mental note of how far you got into the chapter before you couldn't understand what you were reading. We will discuss the reading in groups on Thursday.
There are two types of mechanical energy, potential or kinetic. Mousetrap cars convert the potential energy stored in a spring into motion (kinetic energy). Friction is any force that opposes motion and is essential in a mousetrap car. Without it, the car would never move since frictionless wheels can't gain traction. Friction also slows and eventually stops the car. In these labs, you will measure the potential energy stored in the spring and predict how far the car can travel when converted into kinetic energy while taking into account the most important sources of friction.
Perform labs #2, 5, and 6 of the engineering document and complete the data analysis. Specifically:
- Complete table 1 for lab #2 (The Force is Against You). Watch the Khan Academy video on inclined plane geometry if you are confused where all these formulas come from.
- Complete tables 1 and 2 and the graph for lab #5 (All Wound Up) and answer the Analysis questions 1-4 (page 85). Watch this Khan Academy video to review torque.
- Complete table 2 for lab #6 (The Force is Against You - Part 2) Watch this Khan Acadamy video to see an example of how friction is used in a calculation.
Friday
Mousetrap car wars.
Energy and power are easily confused. The rate at which energy is released affects the power. By changing the length of the lever arm and the radius of the axel, you can affect the power of your car. To make your car go far, you need to release the energy slowly. To make it go fast, you need to release the energy quickly. You will prepare your car for both a speed and a distance competition. In addition, there will be an accuracy challenge which will require yet another configuration.
Monday
- Discuss the chapter on Energy from "Energy for Future Presidents" (see Tuesday's "outside of class reading" assignment).
- Prepare for the "extension" week by researching what you might want to do to explore the mousetrap car further. By the end of class, you must submit an "extension proposal" that outlines what you intend to do next week to extend the mousetrap car activity.
Mousetrap car quiz...
Things I might ask you on the quiz:
- Describe the 3 new ideas on energy you identified from the reading
- Solve a conservation of energy problem like the Khan Academy example
- Describe how to modify mousetrap cars to trade speed for distance
- Calculate the energy stored in a spring from sample data (using Excel)
Week 2:
Suggestions for extension activities
- Build the ultimate mouse trap car. Consult the complete manual for how to customize your materials. Glean ideas from the Internet and build a world class distance or speed car (or any other specialized version you can think of).
- Promote and carry out a competition. Include as many as are interested from both classes.
- Analysis. There are many things we did not measure. Consult the complete manual for new things you can investigate (such as predicting from the rolling friction how far your car will travel).
- Compare the energy in the springs of various brands and types of mouse traps. How much variance is there?
- Rewrite the tutorials. 1) fix the errors 2) make them more understandable 3) include derivations of formulas
- Make a video demonstrating construction, etc.