Tech Directions - February 2009 - (Page 14) SCORE BIG! Pinball Project Teaches Simple Machine Basics By Matthew K. Freeman freemanm@carlisleschools.org CREATED the design brief described in this article to increase student understanding of simple machines. Students can complete it with minimal materials and as little equipment as a band saw and an electric drill. The end result is a working, entertaining product that keeps students interested while simultaneously learning about many different functions of simple machines. I An Activity Evolves When I started teaching the Introduction to Technology course at Carlisle Area High School, I found some good projects and design briefs previously in use, but I did not have anything besides lab activities to help students understand our simple machines unit. I did some research online and found resources on “Rube Goldberg” machines. I tried to use a design brief that had students design and fabricate a Rube Goldberg machine, but had limited success. Even the machines that worked often did not meet the quality that I wanted to see in students’ work. I finally identified the problem: I was overestimating my students’ Matthew K. Freeman is a technology education teacher, Carlisle (PA) Area High School. experience levels. The low level of experience that I ran into in the introductory class made it very hard for some students to grasp and achieve the true “anything and everything” spirit of the Rube Goldberg machine. Many needed more structure than my Rube Goldberg machine design challenge offered. As I was trying to come up with a solution to the problem, a student asked me what I thought of the idea of him making a pinball machine. He showed me some pictures that he found while searching online at home and I realized the project might not only be feasible for him to complete, but it could give me a design brief for use with all my students for the simple machines unit. I’ve field-tested this unit in its current state and have found the student achievement improvements impressive. Background on the Simple Machines Unit Our unit on simple machines in the Introduction to Technology class—grades 9-12 with a typical class size of 20 students—covers different types of simple machines such as gears, pulleys, screws, inclined planes, levers, and wheels. Students complete short lab exercises and produce short reports for each type of simple machine. The lab exercises help students understand what each type of machine is used for, how it works, and how it provides mechanical advantage. As part of the gear exercise, students receive two sets of four different-sized gears with axles and a modular board with holes drilled in even increments to allow them to experiment with different gear ratios. Problems in the exercise include how to determine the gear ratio between the input and output from two to eight gears, how to achieve the highest output speed, and how to achieve the highest output torque. At the conclusion of each lab exercise, students record their findings in lab reports that I evaluate for accuracy. When students have completed all the lab exercises, I give them the design brief for a pinball game. We discuss the criteria and constraints in class, along with possible solutions for the different requirements. The Challenge Students will design and fabricate a pinball machine that has no dimension larger than 30", and that includes at least the following: one working flipper, one ball (metal or plastic), one working plunger (launcher), one ramped section of track for the ball to travel, one curved section of track for the ball 14 techdirections ◆ FEBRUARY 2009
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