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Your team's challenge is to design a vehicle that will travel over a 500 cm race course in the fastest time. The course will include flat, sand and water areas to traverse. The winning team car will be a combination of artistry, speed and engineering.

To solve this problem, use the Design Process Problem Worksheet . Fill out the info as you work. Your research topic will be the sport of Rally Car Racing. Find info on the internet and create a web outline using "Inspiration" software. Store your DPPW and Web outline in your "stuff" folder on your computers' hard drive.

Race Course
Car Specifications
Work list
Research
Rules
Grading/ Judging

The course will be set up between some benches in the Wood Lab. The water and sand areas are 2.5 cm deep. The measurements are approximate.

Car Specifications

1. Final size of your design can be no larger than 12" long, 12" wide or 12" high.

2. Your design will be driven by only one 9 volt DC electric motor given to your team. It can be powered by 1 or 2 of your 9v batteries.

3. You may use any material available to create your car- wood, Styrofoam, foam board, etc.

4. Plastic wheels are available to you, but you may bring in your own. Wheels can be made from materials that float.

5. You may use gears, pulleys or a direct drive transmission to move your car. You must experiment and choose which transmission will work for you.

6. You may use any size wheel axles that you deem necessary to work with your choice of wheels.

7. Your car must be designed according to an artistic theme, and will carry a driver that is associated with this idea. Examples: baseball, Shakespeare, music groups, etc. Drivers can be action figures, beanie babies, painted soda cans etc.

8. The finished car must have its name attached using a banner or flag.

9. There will be only one car per theme. Brainstorm your theme quickly, before others pick it before you.

10. Fill out a web outline using Inspiration on the topic- "Rally Car Racing."

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Work list:

Select a team, brainstorm a name.
Read and understand the Design Brief.
Read and understand the DPPW.
Make a team folder in the Stuff folder. copy (save as) the DPPW on the desktop and place in your folder. fill out the top area and step 1- Problem.
Start your Research- step 2. This involves understanding the sport of Rally Racing.
Step 3- Solutions- Each team will draw 6 thumbnail sketches, these should include car shape, propulsion, theme, and choice/placement of wheels. Record the ideas you come up with for these design areas in your DPPW. Pass in your thumbnails.
Include these good design parts in your step 4- Best Solution drawing. Use graph paper and draw an accurate full size drawing. Include the design areas. Be neat, your MMS 500 Prototype should look very similar to your drawing. Pass in your rough sketch.
Build your Prototype- step 5. Make sure it conforms to the activity specs.
Once your prototype is built, test it with the driver. Fill out step 6- Testing & Modifications, list any changes you made to your final solution.
When satisfied with your design, test out your MMS 500 car on the real track. Record your times for 3 races.

11. Lastly, record any changes you would make for the better, or figure out why your design did not work. List these in step 8- Re-Design.

12. skip step 7- communicate. Take the end of activity Quiz. You may use your "Inspiration" outline for help in answering the questions.

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THE RULES

The 10, and a bit, simple rules of The MMS Rally 500.

1.00 Designs must be powered by an electric motor (see rule 1.00E). Other stored energy is allowed for non-propulsive purposes only. It is legal to get assist from water, wind, sun, gravity.

1b Each design must measure no more than 12" long, 12" high and 12" wide at the start and end of each race. During the race it can exceed these dimensions.

1.00E A car can use only one (1) 9 volt DC motor. This can be powered by a maximum of two (2) 9 volt batteries. The motor and batteries can not be modified. You must provide your own batteries.

1.000D The name of your design must be visible to average human eyes from 10 ft. It may be on each side of your vehicle or on a sign, flag or banner.

1.03C Designs must not be inherently dangerous to the team members, or to anyone else in the world. Pointy things, such as nails, screws, and hooks are dangerous and are disallowed. Flames are not allowed.

2.00 All special terrain equipment must be on board your design at all times when traveling the course. This includes flotation equipment, special tires, and so on.

2.01a All designs must have the required equipment (listed below) on board at all times when traveling the course. This equipment includes:

A flag, see Rule 1.000D
An awe-inspiring introduction of your design either in song, dance, eye-catching graphic or combination of all three.
Each vehicle is required to carry a beanie baby, action figure or other collectable character for a driver.

2B or not 2B Capt. Roberts' Rules of High Order: You may not start the race until you have passed the Official Safety Inspection.

2C or not 2C Mom's high anxiety Rule: A check in there will be a safety and compliance inspection to insure that all the other rules is followed.

3.00 Team members must be human. There must be fewer than 4.35 humans on a team.

3.1a Hand Rule. No one can touch your vehicle between start and finish except as in rules 3.1415926 and 7-1/2.

3.1415926 Drift Law: If a design get stuck in the sand or water, after 20 seconds a member of the team can move it to the end of the of water or sand, which ever it is stuck in.

3.14etc Pinky rule: The team member in 3.1415926 can only use one pinky finger to help the car.

3.2 Roll in/out rule: cars must be propelled unassisted into, through, and out of the sand and water except as noted in the two previous rules.

3.7 Maximum time. The maximum time a design can spend on the course is 1 minute. When 1 minute is reached, timing will stop, the design must be removed from the course and the judges will record the final location.

4f Harassment of race officials can result in a 10 minute penalty, or banishment. Disgrace is liberally awarded in all such cases.

4x Team members and officials will not involve themselves in incidents of kicking, biting, scratching, or fisticuffs. Anyone engaging in such outrageous activities will be banished.

5 This space intentionally left blank.

6.02b The ET ruling: No radio control, remote control, psychic control or other means to guide the vehicle externally will be allowed.

7-1/2 The Agony of Defeat Law: If a design leaves the course, a member of the team can replace it at the point it leaves the course. Ten (10) seconds will be added to the time for each time this occurs. If it occurs in a way that makes the judges laugh, points may be added to the artistic theme score. If it makes the engineering judge cry, points may be deducted from the engineering score.

8: In case of rain, the race shall be run in the rain.

10.00 No obscene or offensive sculptures in the eyes of the judges.

10.3c A judge¹s word is final.

10.4 No design will race without a completed Design Process Problem Worksheet, done except step 8.

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JUDGING
Time will be determined from the time to complete the course, plus additions for penalties and other infractions as determined by the timekeepers. The team with the best time after penalties will receive 10 points, with the other teams receiving points pro rata with their speed (so a team half the speed of the fastest would receive 5 points).

The artistic theme is important in MMS 500 racing. Artistry judging is based on the creative craftsmanship of the entire design "experience" and includes such things as use of color, 2 and 3 dimensional artistic designs (including "gratuitous" moving parts), humor, theatrical appeal, thematic role playing, costumes worn by the team members, songs sung, music played, poems read, etc.

Engineering will be determined by the total of the engineering score received from each judge divided by the number of judges. Judges may score each design from 0 (worst) to 10 (best). Engineering judging is based on the creativity of the design for dealing with various course obstacles, ingenious ways of solving problems, imaginative use of materials, and quality of construction. A design falling apart or failing to negotiate an obstacle leaves a definite negative impression.