1.What is the engineering principle that the
children will learn?
The activity we propose will teach children, through experimentation,
how gears work. Through discovery, the children will learn the concepts
of revolution with, corresponding direction, gear reduction, and liinear
velocity.
2.What is the activity?
The students will break up into groups of 2 - 3, and each group will
be givin a peg board, pegs, and gears (initially, 2 gears will be handed
out, then a third, then the rest (see problems below)). The students solve
the below problems by arranging various gears placed on the peg board,
using the pegs.
3.What age group is the activity designed for?
The age group this activity is geared for would be around the age of
10 years old.
4.What will the children do and how will they learn by
doing your activity?
The children will be given 3 or 4 problems to figure out, while working
in groups of 3. The first problem would require the children to, by using
two same size gears, make the linear gear move up or down. By doing this,
they will learn the relationship between revolution and linear motion (between
two gears). The second problem would require the children to, by using
three same size gears, make the linear gear move up or down. By doing this,
they will discover that the addition of another gear will reverse the direction
previously discovered. The last few problems will require the groups of
children to compete against each other. The goals would be to move the
linear gear the farthest with the least or most amount of revolutions of
the original gear, or to move the linear gear a certain distance with a
certain number of revolutions of the original gear. The groups will be
allowed to use various sizes of gears, which will allow the children to
learn the basic concepts behind gear reduction. Possible other activities
might include recording the time it takes to move the linear gear a certain
distance, for determining linear velocity, or attaching an arm onto the
last gear, to record angular velocity.
5. What will be in the activity box? If appropriate, include
a sketch of the activity.
- 10 peg boards
- few hundred pegs
- 10 linear gears
- 10 drive gears
- 30 each of various sized gears
- 10 arm attachments for angular measure
6. How does your activity meet the requirements given
above?
Gears would be produced through a rapid prototyping system (possibly
LaserCamm). The peg boards will hopefully be purchased, but may need to
be hand drilled prior to use. Same thing for the pegs. This is a hands
on activity, with all students participating in the problem solving process.