This week was all about our mousetrap cars. It took us about a week to build them and test to make sure that they were functional. We also raced them this week. The lesson that we were learning was about the acceleration involved with the motion of the car.
My mousetrap car took me a few hours to build. I had to get all of the materials all in one shopping load, so I wouldn't have to keep going to the store. After that, I had to actually come up with a design and build it. Putting all of the pieces together was not all that hard to do, but, finding someway to keep the wheel axels from moving was kind of a challenge. I finally settled on using zipties and bent paperclips to hold it in place. The best part was that it actually worked!
When it came time to race it, I had a few concerns. First, when I tested it before, it went 3 meters but no farther than that. I hoped that it wouldn't get stuck and not cross the finish line. I was also concerned about the speed. It didn't have the best spring system, but it ended up making good time. Overall, I think I did good but not the best.
This week was fun because of the mousetrap cars. I know that that was only one day, but it was cool to see how my car did. This is one of the experiments that I would recommend for next years class. This project demonstrated acceleration really well, so it will help future students learn about the concepts easier.
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