| Day 1
Lesson Description: Instructor and/or Fellow will present
some background information and go over the project with the students.
The Instructor and/or Fellow will present a demonstration of a
basic chassis design, discuss and demonstrate how the components
go together, discuss the constraints of the design, the goal of
the design, and what type of testing will be performed.
Goal: Students should be proficient enough by the end
of this instructional period to build their own chassis by the
end of the period, on the following day. Students should also
be familiar with the underlying concepts of weight force and friction
to perform meaningful tests and evaluate their chassis/wheel design.
Handouts:
- Example parts from the available stock components.
- Diagrams of how the components fit together.
- Review/background information sheet on weight force and friction.
- Paper for drawing a basic free body diagram of the system.
Day 2
Lesson Description: Students will build their chassis
using the provided stock components and a “box” used
as a boundary placeholder for components to be added in future
portions of the overall project. The Instructor and/or Fellow
will keep the students on task, offer suggestions to facilitate
functional designs, and assist the students in basic construction
and manipulation of the parts.
Goal: Students should have a completely constructed
chassis that will hold and support the weight of the provided
boundary box. Students will learn the basics of structure, gain
important hand skills, and become familiar with open ended design
possibilities given “stock” components.
Handouts:
- Stock components
- Rods
- Connectors
- Boundary box
- Basic connection diagrams
Day 3
Lesson Description: Students will build modular wheel
and axle configurations and connect them to their chassis. The
Instructor and/or Fellow will keep the students on task, offer
suggestions to facilitate functional designs, and assist the students
in troubleshooting design and construction problems that will
allow the chassis/wheel configurations to be fully assembled and
testable by the end of the period.
Goal: Students should have a completely constructed
chassis and wheel system that allows for the interchange of different
wheel configurations during the testing phase on the following
day. Students will learn the basics of building a system containing
moving parts, making design changes midstream in a building process,
and how to troubleshoot problems at the end of a build procedure.
Handouts:
- Tires
- Wheels
- Axles
- Basic connection diagrams
Day 4
Lesson Description: Students will test their basic car
chassis and wheel assemblies on pre-designed track(s)/data collection
systems that propel the car(s) forward with a specific, given
input force. Students will test each of the three wheel size iterations
on the test track and measure, distance traveled and time. Students
will also measure the weight of their chassis with each of the
possible wheel configurations. The Instructor and/or fellow will
run the track system and ensure the proper collection of data.
Goal: Students should have a complete set of data to
compare the motion of the various chassis configurations to each
other on the following day. Students will learn about the collection
and tabulation of data for a non-standard apparatus. A unit system
will be selected and data will be taken to a specific number of
significant digits to reinforce these concepts.
Handouts:
Day 5
Lesson Description: Students will compile their data
and generate appropriate graphs as detailed by the Instructor/Fellow.
Students will analyze data and formulate conclusions about what
wheel configuration best suits the design and propose changes
to the chassis design if any problems were encountered during
the data collection. Students will hand in their finalized graphs
and worksheets for grading and feedback from the Instructor and/or
fellow.
Goal: Students will learn/reinforce graphing and data
analysis skills and learn how to make design decisions based on
input data. Students will learn/reinforce calculation skills of
basic motion and force quantities including velocity, friction
force, and acceleration.
Handouts:
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