You will even find engineers working in the cosmetics industry making better, safer cosmetics. This project contains detailed instructions for building criteria, iterative log and energy calculations. For a college for kids summer class i wanted to design a simpler mousetrap car than the 3wheeled bamboo mousetrap cars i had been experimenting with. Consult your flinn scientific catalogreference manual for current prices. Use a mild lubricant, like wd40, auto grease, or a similar product to keep the points of contact. Fast to build so it could be built in one hour class time. Mousetrap cars how to build a mouse trap car design basics.
Examine, alter, design, and experiment with mousetrap vehicles to understand velocity, potential and kinetic energy, acceleration, speed, circumference, and distance theres more potential in this guide than just potential energy. It also allows students to express and explore their own ideas, and they do have to explain their designs and why they chose that design, but it doesnt. The stored potential energy in the spring of the mousetrap s snapper arm transforms into the kinetic energy that propels a car that you will make. The first race day will be january 18th drive string attached closest to the predicted distance. A very popular method of propulsion is to tie one end of a string to the arm or an extended lever. Understand the engineering design cycle and its parts and utilize them to design and build a mousetrap car. Understand different designs will produce different speeds and distances of their cars. Mousetrap car building basics a mousetrap powered car is a vehicle that is powered by the energy of a woundup mouse traps spring. Displaying all worksheets related to mousetrap cars engineering design challenge.
Glue the mousetrap in place towards the front on the topside of the car with hot glue. This design works well but it was designed mainly to be inexpensive. Mousetrap cars will be tested on a smooth flat surface. Simple mouse trap powered car construction details. Design and build a car that runs on energy provided by a mousetrap. A mouse trappowered racer is a vehicle that is powered by the energy of a woundup mousetraps spring. The complete builders manual fox chapel publishing beginnerfriendly. Mousetrap cars are frequently used to help students learn about mechanical advantage, distance, and gravity, with many teachers turning the experiment into a longdistance challenge. Troubleshooting is included for students that run into difficulty with. Mousetrap cars are a lot of fun to make, but its a good idea to have an adult help so you dont hurt your fingers.
Newtons first law states that every material object continues in its state of rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by. Engineers design products such as cars, bridges, roads and streets. Build a mousetrap car with materials commonly found around the home. While not considered to be fully aligned, the resources and expert recommendations provide teachers. Take a mousetrap and remove the pieces that make up the release trigger bait holder and wire bail, see picture. Mouse trap cars oak ridge institute for science and. Build a vehicle that can travel as far as possible by using only the energy from a single mousetrap. One of my sons friends stayed over yesterday and mentioned in passing hed been assigned to make a mouse trap car for school. We shared the best of mousetrap cars information here. The stored potential energy in the spring of the mousetraps snapper arm transforms into the kinetic energy that propels a car that you will make.
Design brief for the mouse trap vehicle home homepage. This model will help students understand the way they design an object has an effect on the overall speed. Students are required to keep a log of their building progress and update any. Seems simple enough, but the reason its so popular is because its rich in science concepts, applied math, and design possibilities. But in order to build vehicles that can travel over 100 meters or extreme speed cars that can travel 5 meters in less than a second, you must learn about some of the different variables that affect the performance of a mousetrap car. Troubleshooting is included for students that run into difficulty with their mousetrap car construction. Troubleshooting is included for students that run into difficulty with their mousetrap car. This means reducing the friction on surfaces of your car where points slide against each other.
Cars of this type are typically designed with higher mass rear wheel systems than are flat run cars. Be able to design a mouse trap car to test their hypothesis on the speed of. Mousetrap cars are often used in physics or other physical science classes to help students build problemsolving skills, develop spatial awareness, learn to budget time, and practice cooperative behavior. The most basic design is to tie one end of a string to the tip of a mousetraps snapper arm and then the other end of the string has a loop that is designed to. A mousetrap car makes for a great science project, physics classroom experiment, or a fun weekend activity. Do not buy a car or plans from any website or store. See more ideas about mousetrap car, cars and summer classes. The fishing line attached to the arm will pull on the line wrapped around the axle and it will start to unwind. Build a mousetrap car for your science project brighthub. In redesigning this mousetrap car webpage i wanted to introduce more of the educational physics aspect to mousetrap cars. The student follows the design process and sees direct applications of science and technology as he or she designs and builds a mousetrappowered vehicle and competes with classmates to design the fastest car or the car that goes the farthest. How to build a mousetrap car with pictures wikihow. To challenge engineering and 3d design students, you can task them with redesigning the mousetrap car to accommodate a gearing system or a flywheel.
We are now a made from bucket lids and pringles lids. To change the motion of your mousetrap car, you must. For maximum distance, youll want to be using as close to 100% of your mousetraps power as possible. Jan 27, 2020 mousetrap cars are frequently used to help students learn about mechanical advantage, distance, and gravity, with many teachers turning the experiment into a longdistance challenge. Foamcore board or balsa wood are often used for the body. Worksheets are mousetrap cars student work, mousetrap ar project, mousetrapcar masme pdf, teacher subject area room no william schraer stem, mousetrap car module, hands on activities for innovative problem solving, glen ridge public schools mathematics curriculum. Explain the process by which the car is prepared in order for it to run. The work to make our environment cleaner, they design theme parks and shopping centers and develop better communications system.
Mouse trap cars let the race begin you will build an originally designed vehicle powered solely by the energy of one standardsized mousetrap. In addition to building and racing a mousetrap car, students will be required to understand the physics of their cars by taking measurements and calculating their c. The mousetrap car project is a classic physics challenge. The engineering design competition requires participation in these two areas. Dec 18, 2012 once youve set your mousetrap, youre ready to race. Use a prototype mousetrap car to test different variables and then modify the design of the car to optimize its performance. Professor davis puts chemistry aside in favor of a physics and engineering assignment as he explains the prototype design that he and his daughter built for a mousetrap. Be able to design a mouse trap car to test their hypothesis on the speed of an object relating to energy. Variations include the use of multiple traps, or very big rat traps, for added power. Mousetrap racer materials coping saw square pin vise wood chassis screw eyes 2 large, 2 small sanding block 80 grit sandpaper 516 drill bit kit of race car parts hand tools sketch paper instructor provided colored pencils instructor provided mousetrap cars. Students will design and build their own mousetrap powered cars. Nov 24, 2009 simple mouse trap powered car construction details.
The doc fizzixs mousetrap cars use more expensive materials such as brass axles and lever arm which is better. Mousetrap car project contributornot foundtype category instructional materials types experimentlab activity note this resource, vetted by nsta curators, is provided to teachers along with suggested modifications to make it more in line with the vision of the ngss. What are the specifications and constraints the design must meet. A mousetrap powered car is a vehicle that is powered by the energy of a woundup mouse traps spring. This activity has students designing their own mousetrap cars, making revisions, testing their designs, and selecting their best solution based on their own test data. If the partnership is split between class periods then the car is raced twice and the best distance is recorded. Even though they work using principles of physics, you certainly dont need to be a physicist to build and enjoy them. Compare the mousetrap car to the rubberbandpowered car by having an indoor race. The tips section offers students information that will allow them to build advanced mousetrap cars. The beginning, or the topic sentence, states what the paragraph is about. Worksheets are mousetrap cars student work, mousetrap ar project, mousetrapcar masme pdf, teacher subject area room no william schraer stem, mousetrap car module, hands on activities for innovative problem solving, glen ridge public. As you build and complete the building of your car, answer the questions on the handout. The mousetrap cars will initially be generic so that they can provide a platform for common study in physics and math. Design basics earth shattering secrets for building record setting and winning mousetrap cars and racers.
C event in 2019 2020 official wards science olympiad kit for mousetrap vehicle. Basic design of mousetrap cars and step by step to build a mousetrap car can be found here. The purpose of this project is to build a mouse tap car and apply it to newtons laws of motion. Set it down on the floor and use a pencil or other long object to trip the mousetrap. How to build a mousetrap car for distance with professor davis. Discuss the experimental process by which you altered your car. Newtons first law states that every material object continues in its state of rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces acting on it. Once youve set your mousetrap, youre ready to race. It mainly consists of few major parts such as the car body mouse trap, car wheel, tires, and it is a small car without braking system. Mousetrap cars engineering design challenge worksheets.
In addition to mousetrap cars, contests have been created for mousetrap boats. For di tdistance cars, pltht fthf thdi llace the trap farther from the drive axle youll sacrifice pulling force, but get more distance for accuracy cars as with the lenggppth of the snapper arm the placement of the mousetrap depends most on the length of the string for power cars, place the trap closer to the drive axle. In this lesson students will design a car whose center is made out of a mouse trap. Each cad and any associated text, image or data is in no way sponsored by or affiliated with any company, organization or realworld item, product, or good it may purport to portray. In designing the quicky mouse mousetrap car i had the following objectives. The wheels can be offtheshelf radiocontrolled car wheels, but many builders use blank cds or dvds because their thin edges reduce friction.
A mousetrap car is a small vehicle whose only source of motive power is a mousetrap. A mousetrap car designed for a distance competition photo courtesy of benwildeboer one of the things that makes mousetrappowered cars so fascinating is their simplicity. Mousetrap car design day one friday procurement of parts pass checkpoint 1 day one friday. Design constraints you can only use the materials in the kit. More than a mousetrap vehicle kit, this is a complete starttofinish design activity. This presentation helps students entertain all design considerations for mousetrap cars while this website discusses some of the foundational concepts for the flywheel. Mousetrappowered car challenge handson stem project. I thought about how i had lots of fun making those way back and decided to make one out of scraps off my desk and documen.
We will have a race of the cars to see who built the fastest car. The students will also modify their cars to differentiate their product through marketing. Mousetrap cars are a lot of fun to make, but its a good idea to have an. A mousetrap car is a vehicle that is powered by the energy that can be stored in a wound up mousetrap spring. As you might guess, the materials used to build mousetrap powered cars are light out of necessity. Here you will find all the latest and greatest untold construction secrets so you can build your very own mousetrap vehicle. The computeraided design cad files and all associated content posted to this website are created, uploaded, managed and owned by third party users. Problem solving tech learning cd contains mousetrap.
I was a firsttimer building mousetrap cars, and this book really explained the concepts behind building a winning car. Jul 28, 2016 to challenge engineering and 3d design students, you can task them with redesigning the mousetrap car to accommodate a gearing system or a flywheel. Then as the engineering process progresses the students will make decisions as to how they should modify their car to win the race. The most basic design is to tie one end of a string to the tip of a mousetraps snapper arm and then the other end of the string has a loop that is designed to catch a hook that is glued to a drive axle. The cars are scored based on the following three categories. Provided are stepbystep instructions on how to build a mousetrap car. Design brief for the mouse trap vehicle problem design, construct and test a mousetrap powered vehicle that will travel the greatest distance and come closest to the predicted distance. For the purposes of the model and data presented here. Appearance 25pts does it look like the car experienced some sort of design process. Mousetrap car construction article and plan ideasinspire. The most basic design is to tie one end of a string to the tip of a mousetrap s snapper arm and then the other end of the string has a loop that is designed to catch a hook that is glued to a drive axle. A mousetrap is powered by a helical torsion spring. A conceptual physics project where students will design and build a car powered only by the propulsion of one standard sized mousetrap.
Mousetrap cars stem activity introduction design and build a car that runs on energy provided by a mousetrap. A mousetrap car is a fun and easy science project for students. Reference the data tables from the appendix to defend the conclusions which cause you to change your design e. Pass out mousetrap racers grade sheet to each set of partners onepartnership. Concepts energy transfer dependent and independent variables.