For our last and final project in your first year in STEM Marin, we were assigned to pick a previous project and make a better variation of it. We had the option to switch groups but my previous group and myself decided to stay together and work to build another hybrid car.
First we started off with brainstorming ideas and recollecting the do's and don't's of our previous experience a while back. We concluding that our car would have two axles (one in the back and the other in the front), our four wheels would be made out of stacked CD's which then we added pieces of toy tires to provide grip on the floor, and that our car would be powered by rubber bands.
Concepts
Spring Constant- Spring constant is the measure of elastically of an object. To find the sprin constant ina n object the equation is F= kx.
Gravitational Potential Energy- This is the amount of energy and object has before going in motion duw to gravity. Gravitational potential energy can be found from the equation PE=mgh (mass x gravity x height). Kinetic Energy- Kinetic energy is how much energy and object has due to motion. It is calculated by taking half of the product of mass and velocity squared (KE= 1/2mv^2). Thermal Energy- Thermal energy is the lost energy during the transfer of potential energy to kinetic. The thermal energy increased as the car passed each meter. Spring Potential Energy- This is energy due to compression or expansion of an elastic material. This is found with the equation of PEs= 1/2kx^2. Velocity- This is speed with a given direction. Velocity can be found by dividing distance over time (V=d/t). . Friction- This is the force that affects motion. For our car, the CDs didn't have enough friction so we added the tire threads to increase it.
Reflection
It was loads of fun to rebuild a hybrid car. I think for sure our biggest peak of all was that we didn't seem to rush towards the end of the project. Since we had already done a variation of the project we knew what we were doing and just had to "do it better". Another peak was our attitudes towards in the process of building. We came across many obstacles where we had to think of another idea but we always seemed to stay positive about it and laugh through it. Although we had lots of peaks we also had a few pits. One pit was that we were inconsistent with our group productivity. Some days we would get off topic multiple times and not stay on track but on other days we were "in the zone" and got many things done. Another pit was that sometimes we would get stuck on creativity. When something wouldn't work we would stumble over it and not know what else to do but in the end we fought through it and always came up with something different.
I had such a great time working on this project with my group. I can't wait to work with them again soon and I'm excited to see what next year will bring!