Toothpick Bridge Challenge!!

We were given the challenge to undertake the building of a bridge using only toothpicks and glue!
So we assembled, 6 powerful teammates, coming together to complete the quest we've accepted!

THE CRITERIA:

• Build the bridge with the highest strength to weight ratio (most weight prior to breaking vs the weight of the design).

THE CONSTRAINTS:

• Bridge may not weigh more than 50 grams.
• Bridge must span a 12” gap.
• Bridge must be at least one toothpick length wide.
• Bridge must be at least one toothpick length in height.
• No more than 8 toothpicks touching in parallel at any point.
• Materials:
• Construction Materials:
• One pack of 800 Count “Royal” toothpicks.
• Glue guns and glue
• Fabrication materials:
• cardboard and wax paper to prevent glue mess.
• graphpaper to layout design.
• Keep your workspace clean!

So our team got together and using the packs of toothpicks we created a structure like the one exemplified in the figures below.

We used at first wood glue (grew impatient with the drying time required) then switched to hot glue guns.

We built one side with this structure

Due to time constraints, we knew we wouldn't be able to finish our original design on time, so we improvised!

What we originally intended as a side piece became the surface! However, when in standard bridge position, our bridge buckled under the empty box. Somewhat discouraged, we attempted it upside down, trying ANYTHING to get it to work.

Surprisingly, it worked beautifully! Our strength ratio was 15:1, way more than anything we had expected from our underdog toothpick bridge!\

This challenge was really valuable in learning something about time management and productivity!

February 19. Design Build Challenge!

What we did! We were told to design something that would transport a ping pong ball 2 feet across a gap between tables. Every team was given $12,000 to buy the materials for our designs. For my team's design:

We spent $9,000 on 4 feet of tape and two cups.

It is a simple design however our simplicity allowed for a clean shoot into the cup!

Lego Robotic Cars!!!

Our objective when beginning this challenge was to create a free moving vehicle using our lego robotic kits! We were to program the vehicle and build it in order to go through a set course!

This is a picture of attaching the final wheels to our car!
So that the final product looks like....

We hadn't sketched any ideas beforehand, we just went at it, building prototype after prototype until a final car emerged victor!

In order to make the car do what we wanted, Dylan used online programming:

At first we had a hard time getting our bot to turn, but with enough fiddling with the programming, Dylan was able to make it do a little walk and turn!!

Our little Star Wars looking robotic lego car was able to complete this course:

Where the white line on the right is start, and the line on the left is finish!

Feedback!

Project Feedback:

• Positive Results:
• We were able to make it go for extended periods of time and added better wheels so that the power wasn't lost! It was able to drive and quickly too!
• The turning capabilities were low at first, but then Dylan and Jose developed "the walk" so our car could walk the walk AND talk the talk!
• Improve
• Turning radius - we saw some vehicles that could nearly "turn on a dime" and that would be something to emulate in the future!
• Aesthetics! We're working with Legos so there could be a lot of opportunity to make our design look more interesting.

Partner feedback:

The main creator was Dylan!! He really worked hard on it and deserves an awesome point!