A popular pastime for the Pinewood Derby Racing Scouting Group and many more. [Mr Coster] Whips up his own track with the help of some 3D printed parts, and uses it to run a contest with a fun twist on the general theme.
The track starts with a pair of MDF panels, on top of which some strips are placed to act as guides for the racers. There is also a release mechanism made with hinges and a pair of dowels that ensures that both racers start competing at the same time. To give the track a beautiful transition from a downward slope to a horizontal one, a series of curved transitions have been designed with Fusion 360, 3D printed and added to the course.
To compete, [Mr Coster] Decided to avoid normal focus at direct speeds. Instead, students are charged with construction The slowest car That could still complete the course. Just for fun, though, the kids were given one day to change their slow cars to compete. In a more general quick-win event. This gives students a great lesson in optimizing for different performance parameters.
Although you may be old school and want to ruin the fun by taking it too seriously. These competitors may consider some advanced tools shown before us. Alternatively, you can run a no-hold-barred cheater version of the competition. Video after the break.
Tomorrow is the last day of building / testing before race day. Students were given the task of designing the slowest car capable of completing the race. Kids love to see the excitement and hear the laughter while working through the engineering design process! 3#WeareCedarGrove pic.twitter.com/gmNoJ18C7E
– MrCosterTeachesMath (@CosterMath) May 5, 2022
Great way to end the week at Engineering 1. Students were given one day to change their cars from the slowest racer to the fastest. The kids were absolutely awesome and with their help we ran 70+ runs per class period! 3 #WeAreCedarGrove pic.twitter.com/Bw6mc52tl1
– MrCosterTeachesMath (@CosterMath) May 15, 2022