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The Carousel Challenge
Design Brief:
Your cousin Dolores just sent the youngest of her five kids to college. Now she wants to do something fun with her life. She’s decided to open an amusement park! She’s already purchased a lot of the rides. But she can’t find a carousel that she likes. She said that most of them are too "cute" and they all look the same. So, she’s asked you and your design team to build a carousel that has two stories, with some space between the first and second stories.
Design Features:
Obviously this carousel is not like other carousels. If you’re going to make Dolores happy, that carousel must:
- Have room for passengers (LEGO people) and be able to support their weight
- Have lights that go on when the carousel is moving
- Have two stories that turn independently from one another
- Not tip over even if the only passengers are in the second floor
- Be operated by a person on the ground
- Be able to stop and start on command
Getting Started on Design:
Go to the Conexiones Web site. Look at what other people have created. Soon you’ll get a sense of the great potential of Lego Robotics. But other people’s ideas aren’t going to match all of Dolores’s requirements. So this is only a place to start.
http://conexiones.asu.edu/curriculum/roboticideas.html
Think About the Client:
Dolores is looking for a Carousel that looks different than other carousels. If you build a design she likes, she wants to sell it to other amusement parks. You already know that it will have two stories. What are some of the other things you can do to make this carousel unlike any other carousel?
Brainstorming:
Look carefully at those design features (above) and start asking yourself some questions. For example, how does a Carousel work? Make a list of questions and use the Internet to search for answers. But don’t get lost while you’re surfing the Web. Start with key words that relate to your questions. For example "carousel mechanics." Search the Web until all your questions are answered.
While you’re doing your Web searches, think ahead to the presentation you’ll be giving.
Sell the Idea:
Selling the idea is part of the design challenge. Dorlores isn’t going to build this carousel it you don’t convince her that you’ve done your research and you know what you’re talking about. So, be sure your ideas clear.
You’ll create a project Web site to get your ideas across. These are the things you must include on your project Web site:
- Describe the design challenge
- Describe your research (the questions you came up with while brainstorming a and the answers you found on the Internet.)
- Describe how the mechanics of the Carousel satisfy those design challenges
- Include plenty of details about those mechanics.
- What makes a carousel turn?
- What mechanics are involved in creating a two-story carousel?
Be sure to include some interesting stories about carousels:
What is a carousel?
When was the first carousel built?
Has any major historical event occurred on a carousel?
Why do most carousels have painted ponies?
What’s the biggest carousel that has ever been built? The smallest?
What challenges did you come across while designing and programming the carousel?
What research information helped you design and build the carousel?
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