Thinking Practices
My first few visions of my carrier were mostly aesthetics-based. I planned for them to take the shape of an actual carrier and add decoration on top of them. Soon I realized that it would take more time than I had to create that, and I had no valid reason for focusing on aesthetics anyways, as this was to show energy conversion, so I moved on to my next idea.
My second version of the carrier was very energy-conversion-based. It consisted of many parts: a ramp, a gong, a carrier, and an automatic slingshot. The carrier was going to be pulled back (elastic potential to kinetic), slide down the ramp (gravitational potential to kinetic), hit the gong (kinetic to sound), and automatically launch a paper airplane (elastic potential to kinetic). It was full of energy conversions, and I settled on this design for a while until I created my prototype. I could not get the automatic slingshot to work. I could not get a gong, and my peers told me the conversions were hard to identify since so much was going on so fast.
At last, I settled on a simple design that focused on two conversions from elastic potential energy to kinetic energy. This refined design removed the ramp and gong parts from my previous one, and the shape of the carrier was a simple upside-down trapezoid. I was contemptuous of this design as I had no experience in the design center, and this simple design would give me more room for errors. It also displayed energy conversion more clearly as one conversion was repeated twice through the pull-back mechanic and slingshot.
Design Concept
Carrier Body Blueprint
Slingshot 3D Model
Materials Needed:
- Card, foam, or felt boards, preferably colored
- Four elastic bands (Common yellow type)
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks
- Cutting Knife and board
- 3D Printed slingshot (Sent)
- Two sets of wheels and axels (four wheels in total)
- Masking tape (To keep boards in place when hot glue drying, will not be in the final product)
Techniques Used:
- Refined YouTube tutorial for pull-back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb2j40Loaek
- Hot glue to connect all components.
Plan
Success Criteria:
The final product needs to:
- Clearly display conversion from elastic potential energy to kinetic energy.
- Be mobile.
- Be interactive.
- Not break.
Components (Plan):
Car body
- Cut out all pieces of cardboard, dimensions as shown in the blueprint.
- Arrange the cut out pieces into the shape in the blueprint, and cover the connecting edges with masking tape from the outside, excluding the centerpiece.
- Hot glue one edge at a time, separate edges from the masking tape a little, and use the hot glue gun to glue the edges together. Remove the masking tape to test if the glue is dried. Wait for the glue to dry before moving to the next edge.
- Hot glue the centerpiece to joints from the top and bottom.
Wheel
- Prepare four wheels and two axels, dimensions as shown in the blueprint.
- Connect the wheels and the axels, hot glue ramps (glue blobs) right beside (but not onto) the wheels to keep them in place.
- Test if the wheels are functioning.
Slingshot
- Create a 3D model and print it out.
- Attach elastic bands to it.
Arrangement (When all components are finished)
- Hot glue the car body onto the axles, apply glue at the joints and make sure not to glue the wheels.
- Use the pull-back car YouTube tutorial to create a pull-back mechanic. Instead of using elastic bands to connect the axle and front, connect both sides of the wheels instead.
- Secure the slingshot on top of the carrier with hot glue, and test to see if it is secured.
- Test the final product.