The SMILE Program @ OSU

The mechanical engineering team wants to help you with some of your cable car requirements. First, you must have requirements that are testable.  You also need to find the best test for the requirements you want to meet.  The guys show you how their cable car testing was done and signed off by their professor. Just a reminder your cable car must: cross the 5-foot span of string without falling off, balance on the span without any assistance, have no more than two strings may be used for the cable car, have no human assistance can be used during the operation of the cable car, be able to move in both directions, be reliable and safe, and travel quickly. Good luck!

The group wants to show you how their project is coming along.  Alex, Erik, and Jared are excited to show you how they incorporated their materials into their own cable car reality.

Alex shows you how the team incorporated scale into their design.  A scale is the size you determine your cable car to be.  The group shows us how they used a computer to decide their scale and then put it into practice. Remember the group is making a larger scale project, but these tips can still be applied to you.

Jared and the SMILE Team strongly encourage you to use safety while creating your project.  Jared also tells us about manufacturing and how laying out your project is an important first step.  Remember mistakes happen and it is important to stay positive while working with your group. We encourage you to ask questions on the blog and keep checking back!

Alex, Erik, and Jared are back again to give you more helpful hints on this year’s Middle School Challenge.  To recap the last time we heard from them, they helped define the customer for our upcoming cable car project.  Today the group wants to share with you what type of materials they are using to please the customer, which may look a little different than the materials you may end up using.  They also encourage you to be more efficient by planning your materials and budget ahead of time.  The team is here to break it all down for you.

Alex is here to talk to you about a budget and schedule.  Both are an important part of the engineering process.  The video even shows you the team’s timeline for their own cable car.  We may not have the same timeline the group does but time management is an important factor in this project.  What do you think will be the first item on your schedule? How long should it take you?

Jared is helpful in breaking down what materials you may come across in your project.  He elaborates on where you can get these various supplies.  Don’t worry we do have most of the supplies for you, but what supplies do you think you will need? Where do you think is the best place to purchase those supplies?  Feel free to share your answers in our comment section.

Our cable car curriculum keeps expanding and we are happy to share with you more lessons in this PowerPoint from the SMILE Teacher’s Workshop.  Included in the slides are customer requirements and design elements that will help with the Middle School Challenge.  This would be a great lesson plan to show middle school students to get them motivated and inspired!

As our team member Alex had said last week research is an important part of the engineering process. We wanted to help you out with this process.  Cable cars can be seen in a variety of shapes and sizes but also in plenty of places around the world.  We wanted to show you an example of some of the varieties of cable cars to help inspire you.

• San Francisco is one of the few places in the United States to still have a cable car with an underground wire.  The cable car museum shows you the many components that are used to make this possible.

• New York has a long history of various types of cable cars.  Their Transit Museum website breaks down the differences between their various types of transportation.  Keep track of the differences because there will be important for your design.

• Most of these cars are fixed onto the cable and the cables move.  However, there are cars that move on a fixed cable.  The differences can be confusing but look out for them in this video of a cable can on the West Cost Trail in Canada.

Hopefully these websites allowed you to answer some important questions.  After looking at our research and doing some on your own you should be able to understand the difference between the different cable cars, how people go from concept to reality while making a cable car, and how various cable cars work. We encourage you to expand on this research and try to figure out what your customer may be as a cable car company.  Earlier this week Erik talked about design being not only important to customers but to the function of your cable car.  What design factors might make your car most efficient?  Happy researching!

Last year (2013-14) at our Middle School Challenge we had our students make a Rube Goldberg project.  A Rube Goldberg machine is one where coordinated parts work together to accomplish a task (such as wiping your mouth) without human intervention during any part except the start.  Our team from last year made their machine take a picture with a camera.  Their weekly videos are posted here on the blog. By watching these videos you should be able to apply them to your cable car.  We encourage you to check it out!