4th Annual Mousetrap-Racecar Races!

We earned 12 ACHIEVEMENTS They are: 

Design Stage: 

 Brainiac: two axles, heavy, mouse trap OFF of car, mousetrap tied to black base, racecar launched from mousetrap lever, four wheels, lots of parts used, most weight in the back, traction made by black plastic wheels, focuses on weight of the car to drive it farther 

 Visualize It:

 Build Stage: 

 Build It - 

 The Price of Glory: It's worth $23 (23 parts)

 Test (Compete) Stage: Each car will compete in two events. Generate your design accordingly. 1) The Distance Event: Compete for the furthest distance. Teams will race one at a time and have up to 3 attempts to achieve the longest distance. We will race on the tiles of the classroom unless the class decides we need more space. Your best result will be marked with a piece of masking tape. The marked location is where the car comes to rest (cars have been known to roll back at times!). Our car traveled a distance of 15 feet. 

 2) The Acceleration Event: Cars will compete head to head in a competitive bracket. The winner of each duel will move on to the next round. The course is 24" long. Our car had a poor accelereation and was not able to be a feirce of a competitior as the other teams.

 Competitor - Compete in the 4th Annual Mousetrap Racecar Challenge.

 Feedback:

+ -it gets good acceleration and distance -it rides completely straight 

 -friction is the only thing working against the car (no strings to brake it) 

 change -make it lighter for longer distance 

 ? -How can you keep the car completely on the ground upon launch? 

 ! -make it heavier to weigh it down so all wheels stay on ground

 Iterate Stage: Re-Work -add less parts so that it can accelerate faster.

 Game Changer -ALL wheels must stay in contact with surface being raced upon -spending money ($1 per part) must be between 10-25 parts 

Name It:  

-Led foot can become "Cheetah Speed" -Heavy foot can become "Lion Speed"

 Leave it Cleaner than you Found it: Our car was completely disassembled and properly stored in the correct boxes of the parts. No leftover parts, scraps, or trash were left at our station.

Design/Build: A Design/Build process is the cycle of how solutions are designed and built. This process includes consulting, analyzing, building and financing, planning of building, and building management and delivery. This cycle is constantly repeated until the product is near perfection. How did your experience with this challenge relate to that? This challenge required consulting with teammates, analyzing possible building techniques, planning of building the racecar, actually building the racecar, and then fine-tuning your product to produce the greatest results. This process is needed and utilized in every technical innovation career. Engineers must think of how to solve the problem and then constantly revise their first idea for maximum potential.

Marble Design Build Challenge

Team members: Kingston, Sean, and Jackson

1.  FOURTH PLACE

2. Marble summary:

-use 14 straws, 10 tooth picks, 3 feet of tape 3 paper cups, and 1 round marble 

- use these materials to transport a marble into a cup and measure how far the cup is away from the table.  

-whoever gets the marble in the cup the farthest away wins. 

-the marble has to stay in the cup or else it does not count.

3. Clean up:

The 4th Annual Cardboard Canoe Challenge

We are claiming 15 achievements total 

1. Criteria:

-Build a watercraft that allows you to traverse the CHS swimming pool.

 - Your "boat" must float at least one student through the course of the competition.

 - Protect your workspace from damage! - Implied: Keep your workspace clean 

2.Constraints: 

 - You may only use Cardboard and Duct Tape for this event.

 - All Staples or other foreign material must be removed from your cardboard. If we trash the pool, we will not be invited back for other activities during the year (yes, we have other activities in mind for 2nd semester). 

 - Cardboard must meet our quality standard and be approved by the instructor (more info to follow) 

 - Each boat must have a minimum of a 3" tall "sidewall" (no completely flat designs). 

 - All exposed cardboard must be covered in duct tape (this will reduce cardboard disintigration in the pool). 

 - Each team will be provided one "versa table" cardboard box piece and two 60yrd rolls of duct tape. Any materials beyond this (likely need more cardboard) need to be resourced by your team.

 - Implied: The boat must fit out of the doorway

 - Implied: The boat must be able to be transported from the classroom to the pool

 - Implied: The boat can not pose any threat to the students in or around the boat while it is in the water

 DESIGN ACHIEVEMENTS Define and Brainstorm the Design: We need to create a boat made of completely cardboard and duct tape that will float in a body of water.

3. Brainstormed Ideas: Flat bottom, longer length, high walls, low walls, shorter length, v-shaped bottom, pointed front, angled front, pointed back, flat back, completely covered in duct tape, duct tape only covering cardboard exposed to water, wide bottom, narrow bottom, oars, pull with a rope, push with swimmers, paddle by yourself, one person in boat, two people in boat, lay down flat, sit up on butt, kneel in boat, stand in boat 

4. Big Brain: I think I had the most brainstorm ideas WRITTEN DOWN; however, our whole team contributed to the entire brainstorm list 

 5. SKETCH:

 First Idea:

Second:

Third(final):

6. PROTOTYPES: 

 First Prototype: 

 - Flat Bottom 

 - Curved, pointed bow 

- High Walls 

 Second Prototype:

 - V-Shaped Bottom 

 - High Walls 

 - Short Length 

 Third (Final) Prototype:

 - Flat Bottom 

 - Not so high of walls (easier paddling?)

 - Rectangle with a pointed front (stable)

7.  Reflection achievements: 

 First Idea: 

+ - flat bottom for stability 

 Change - High walls 

 ? - What is the optimal boat length? 

 ! - Shorten the walls and make it longer

 Second Idea:

 + - V bottom for straightness 

 Change - High Walls 

 ? - Should a flat bottom or v shaped bottom be used? 

 ! - Use a flat bottom and shorten the walls and make it longer

 Final Idea: 

 + - Flat bottom and optimal length Change - Final Idea

- no need for a change 

 ? - How should we propel the boat? (pulling or paddling) 

 ! - Pulling could be faster and easier for the pilot to keep the boat stable 

 MATRIX:

 First: short, high walls, flat bottom, one point in front, curved bow 

 Second: short, high walls, curved bottom, two points, looks a lot like a regular canoe 

 Third: longer (optimal lengthe between speed and handling), shorter walls, flat bottom, one point in front, point is slightly curved We will use the third and final prototype for our cardboard boat.

8. How low did you go?: our canoe sat roughly 2 inches in the water. It was very surprising that it didn't go more into the water.

9. Redesign: If I were to build another canoe my team members and I would take more time duct taping it and pay more attention to detail.

10. Own achievement: achievement for fewest amount of team members at race.

11. Extra credit achievement:Sean was able to best mr Olson in a swim competition.

BUILD ACHIEVEMENTS:

12. Build it!

Finished cardboard boat

TEST ACHIEVEMENTS:

13. The longest: we won the time challenge

14. Balance Master:http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J2DVhNxSaHY

15.Videographer:http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J2DVhNxSaHY

Wheel and axle

First class lever/ second class lever/ third class lever

My first blog post of the year

I'm very excited to get into engineering and start problem solving. Since I intend to pursue a career in engineering this course will work to an advantage to me. Go engineers.