Mouse Trap Powered Car

| Home | Introduction | Task | Process | Learning Advice | Competition Rules | Evaluation | Conclusion |

Introduction

What comes to mind when you think of an automobile manufacturer? Do you think of Ford, Chevrolet, Chrysler or some other car company? How do you perceive yourself working for one of these companies? Are you the engineer, marketing executive, factory worker or some other service-associated career? What a flurry of activity there must be at an automobile manufacturing plant!

Automobiles are our primary means of transportation. Without them our lives would be dramatically different. How do these automobiles work? Where do they get their source of energy? How is it stored?

With soring gas prices these days we need more effecient transportation. Your job will be to make a car that has its only source of energy stored in a mouse trap spring.

Questions to think about: Where did that energy come from? How will it be transferred so that it carries the mousetrap from the base line to the free throw line of the basketball court? This is approximately 15 feet depending on the size of the court. How does friction play a role in the design? What does inertia have to do with the distance the car travels? How about Newton's second law? What implications are there concerning net forces and acceleration?

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TheTask

You will be working in a team that will consist of 4 members. Each member will be assigned one of the following roles:

Engineer/Designer (1)

Factory technicians (Builders) (2)

Reporter (1)

You will use the Internet to research the functions mousetrap cars.

You will identify different kinds of simple machines used in the mousetrap cars.

You will share your research notes with the other members of the group to make sure EVERYONE understands the information.

Using the role assigned to you, your group will work together to plan, design, and construct a mousetrap car.

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The Process

1. Before you can construct a mousetrap vehicle, you must research how one of these vehicles works. You should use the Internet and search engines to collect information about mousetrap vehicles.

2. Once EVERYONE in your group has researched the functions of the mousetrap vehicles, get together and compare notes to make sure that you all agree on the information.

3. Now you need to decide who will assume which role for this project. Once you have decided, click on the manila folder for more information, requirements and evaluation for each role.

The Engineer---This individual should enjoy calculating and drawing. He/She will be drawing the mousetrap vehicle onto a sheet of paper as a reference for the City Builders. This individual will also calculate the gear ratio for the vehicle

The Auto Builders--- These two individuals will be constructing the actual mouse trap vehicle. These individuals should have access to each other after school and on weekends (if needed) to work on the vehicle.

The Reporter--- This individual should enjoy writing. He/She will be responsible for keeping all members on task, and will be recording the process in newsletter form.

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Competition

A competition will be held to determine who has the best mouse trap car. The competition will be held after 3 hours of in class design and building time. Follow the mouse trap rules link to get more information about the competition and how you will be graded.

Evaluation

A description of how each individual will be evaluated is included in each of the manila folders.

The Engineer---

The Auto Builders

The Reporter---

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Conclusion

The common automobile is a complex machine. For some students, trying to remember which parts go with which can be a difficult task. The intent of this Web Quest is to help students understand how a mousetrap vehicle is similar to an automobile and then apply these concepts to an actual machine. Although this project is very simple as compared to an actual automobile manufacturing plant, hopefully it will be a starting point from which you can build upon later on.

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