What is the purpose of your device/toy, how does it function, and who is your user?
Our toy is a combination of Plinko and the basketball arcade game. Its purpose is to teach and introduce to the user, elementary school students, energy conversions. It functions by shooting the ball with the catapult part of the basketball arcade game onto the cardboard board which slides down along the obstructions into sections with scores labeled. The function meets the purpose of introducing energy conversions through the shooting trajectory and the ball falling down the Plinko board. This would teach the students the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy, specifically, the conversions of elastic energy from the catapult and gravitational energy when landing at a high area on the Plinko board to kinetic energy. This would be introduced to them during engaged, joyful learning, which is reflected through the product which is in the form of a game and would further engage students, as it has a point system, in learning about energy transfers and how it might affect the created trajectory, allowing more points scored.
What is the environmental impacts of your product and is it durable and safe?
The environmental impacts of my product would have the least possible effect, as it would use cardboard, popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and a plastic bottle cap, they could all be found ready-made and reused in this project to lessen the environmental impacts. Our project would also be using glue to attach cardboard together. As hot glue is primarily derived from plastic, it is not biodegradable and not environmentally friendly, we have decided to use wood glue instead, which is durable, non-toxic, and biodegradable.
Our product is very durable and safe. The main product wouldn’t fall apart easily due to the use of wood glue as it is very durable and creates a strong bond, the structure in the cardboard would also prevent the ping pong ball from making large indents on it. Apart from that, wood glue is nontoxic, so, in this case, it would be safer for children as their immune system isn’t as strong as ours. The catapult part of the product would be more fragile as rubber bands and popsicle sticks are prone to breaking with large, aggressive forces, so the product will have additional rubber bands to spread the forces on and prepare extra popsicle sticks to substitute any broken popsicle sticks. There will not be any major safety hazards if no aggressive actions are taken, such as the purposeful breaking of popsicle sticks causing possible injury.
What precedents inspired you? What did you take away from them & how did it inform your choices?
Some precedents that inspired us were the basketball arcade game and Plinko. We did further research on different types of catapults in the basketball arcade game. We took away the catapult part from the basketball arcade game as it could better reflect potential energy transfer to kinetic energy instead of throwing the ping pong ball. From the vast majority of catapults, we chose the elastic band one as it has elastic bands in sight, which could contribute to an easier explanation of what elastic energy is since it is the energy stored when a material is stretched or compressed and perhaps could be widely associated with elastic bands, it also had a larger, more controlled trajectory. This was also chosen as the balloon launcher was too fragile and the clip catapult would have larger safety hazards if it did break since there are sharp, tiny parts inside. We substituted the basket on the arcade game with a Plinko board in hope that it would arouse continuous engagement as it includes a point system which would create competition and more activeness in the engagement of learning, it also could clearly show the transfer of gravitational energy to kinetic from the downfall of the ball.
How are you making this product original and/or using creativity?
We are making this product original by firstly analyzing different precedents, specifically, analyzing how well they can reflect energy transfers, their safety hazards, and how fit they are for children’s use. We are combining different precedents that best and could clearly show energy transfers and customizing the catapults so that it is easy to control for children.