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Computers
& Technology
. Mini-Monster
Truck Rally If you walked into the lobby of Mt. Abe during the last week of school, you might've noticed something unusual. ...
There were plenty of kids in the lobby, and a couple of teachers, too. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. But once you were inside, you realized that one group of students, along with their teacher, was pretty intensely focused. ... The teacher was Mr. Tailer, and the kids, students in his Physics classes. They were gathered around a couple of inclined ramps, pushed together to make a hill climb. Some of the kids were busy with wires and transformers, making last minute changes to their rigs. A few gathered around as Mr. Tailer offered a suggestion here, a question there. But mostly, he was all business-like, clipboard in hand, taking notes and keeping score {though he did wear a wry smile he couldn't quite seem to suppress}. ... And the kids? Well, there was an occasional moan of frustration now and then, but mostly, the kids seemed to love it. The business at hand was a single-elimination mini-monster truck rally. Spread out over two days, each of two classes had been busily preparing for the event. We got there for day one of the two-day event and were impressed enough to get back for day two. ...
The objectives were seemingly simple enough: 1) Get to the top of the hill first and 2) release a flag. But behind that apparent simplicity there was an awful lot of 'how' -- both how-to and know-how -- and the students had been busy putting both to work to build, modify, and tune their rigs. ...
The students paired off against one another, each starting at opposite ends of the ramp for the initial hill climb. Some units made their way up quickly, some, not quite. Others quickly release their flags, tall and straight, while others struggled with the release mechanism. But just as they had similar guidelines to follow, all of them had other things in common, as well. They were all built from scratch {and scraps}. They all worked. And they were all the focus of interest and effort, something you don't always see in school projects. ... Here, then, are just a sampling of scenes from the two-day event. .
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The
rigs were as varied as the students themselves; but all of them had a few
guidelines that had to be followed: Motion was mechanized. Power was
provided by transformer units the students had built [120V limit]. And
each had a flag attached which had to be released to an up-right position when
the rig reached the top of the hill. 
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