Engineering Project

ems_12

One for the innovative among ye all.....

Mainly for Civil Engineers but I'm sure the rest of you will come up with ideas. I have to do a project with 11(ish) yr olds, about 12 of them, they will work on it for 6wks (in between all the other school stuff!). Any ideas? Here's some brainstorming if you want to help elaborate on it:

1) Re-use of greywater - collect rainwater, pipe it to a vegetable patch
2) wind turbine - analyse blade design (make 3 different turbines, use a hair dryer on each and see which is best design - this is my fav but having problems connecting turbine blades to something that will measure output -ammeter?)
3) Wind turbine - testing locations of turbine e.g. on football pitch vs beside wall of school
4) Flooding - find alternative to sandbags/easy way of protecting door of school
5) Turning sea water into fresh water

As you can see the ideas get a bit more "out there" as I go on. Materials have to be affordable (€50 max?), main focus has to be on Civil Engineering. Can you guys suggest anything? Or help with the finer details above!? (I'll let you know in April if the kids come up with somehting better )

chris85

ems_12 wrote: »

One for the innovative among ye all.....

Mainly for Civil Engineers but I'm sure the rest of you will come up with ideas. I have to do a project with 11(ish) yr olds, about 12 of them, they will work on it for 6wks (in between all the other school stuff!). Any ideas? Here's some brainstorming if you want to help elaborate on it:

1) Re-use of greywater - collect rainwater, pipe it to a vegetable patch
2) wind turbine - analyse blade design (make 3 different turbines, use a hair dryer on each and see which is best design - this is my fav but having problems connecting turbine blades to something that will measure output -ammeter?)
3) Wind turbine - testing locations of turbine e.g. on football pitch vs beside wall of school
4) Flooding - find alternative to sandbags/easy way of protecting door of school
5) Turning sea water into fresh water

As you can see the ideas get a bit more "out there" as I go on. Materials have to be affordable (€50 max?), main focus has to be on Civil Engineering. Can you guys suggest anything? Or help with the finer details above!? (I'll let you know in April if the kids come up with somehting better )

How about bridge building? You use simple materials like cardboard, paper, etc. Design a few different bridges and build them between two tables or something and test them by putting a weight in the middle of them and see which one flexs more.

If you can stray away from civil area the best thing I would think would be water rockets using a standard bottles and designing fins, cones, etc for the rockets and launch them. Just using pressurised water using bicycle pump. Great fun to do and everyone loves rockets

Edit: BTW the wind turbine ideas are not in the area of civil engineers, they would be for the mechanicals

Johnniep

http://www.steps.ie/

ems_12

Thanks Chris 85 and Johnnie P,

I forgot to say, my school doesn't want to do bridges, it's the first thing they said ("no bridges!!") as they did that last year in a similar initiative.

I like the idea of water rockets, maybe I can twist the excercise so we talk about water pressure more, then it's still related to civils (I hope!)

godtabh

chris85 wrote: »

How about bridge building? You use simple materials like cardboard, paper, etc. Design a few different bridges and build them between two tables or something and test them by putting a weight in the middle of them and see which one flexs more.

If you can stray away from civil area the best thing I would think would be water rockets using a standard bottles and designing fins, cones, etc for the rockets and launch them. Just using pressurised water using bicycle pump. Great fun to do and everyone loves rockets

Edit: BTW the wind turbine ideas are not in the area of civil engineers, they would be for the mechanicals

Bridge builidng is a cood idea but thats probably more structural. I did that back in college in the day using balsa wood. Very cheap. €50 would buy you a fair bit of balsa wood!

I'd good with the bridge idea all the same

chris85

ems_12 wrote: »

Thanks Chris 85 and Johnnie P,

I forgot to say, my school doesn't want to do bridges, it's the first thing they said ("no bridges!!") as they did that last year in a similar initiative.

I like the idea of water rockets, maybe I can twist the excercise so we talk about water pressure more, then it's still related to civils (I hope!)

it aint really related to civils at all. the whole water pressure area is the mechanical engineering discipline.
If doing the water rockets, just get them all to bring in a 2 litre bottle and put them into groups designing the fins and cones. They can also decide how much water to put in. Its great fun. One third water in the bottle is about the optimum amount for thrust i think.

godtabh

chris85 wrote: »

it aint really related to civils at all. the whole water pressure area is the mechanical engineering discipline.
If doing the water rockets, just get them all to bring in a 2 litre bottle and put them into groups designing the fins and cones. They can also decide how much water to put in. Its great fun. One third water in the bottle is about the optimum amount for thrust i think.

There is a lot of water pressure in watermains.

chris85

kearnsr wrote: »

There is a lot of water pressure in watermains.

I see your point, I'm slightly biasd towards mechanical i guess

OP, you any idea what project you going for?

Also as mentioned before, try www.steps.ie . They are really active in promoting engineering and sciences to the younger.They do school visits and the like. Good initiative.

I like the way the younger are being incouraged more about the sciences so if you need any advice or help, just drop me a PM

sham08

What about simulating river flow using a small pump and some perspex sheets for the walls and floor, you could introduce small weirs and have them measure flow using buckets and stopwatchs. Great fun and educational. I am not sure but I think you could get all that for under 50euro, maybe rent the pump if it is too dear.

Or you could look at the collapse of embankments just using sand and a thin sheet of metal (v. cheap to do) then look at improvements in values by introducing anchors etc.

mawk

well if you want to measure the output of the turbine just stick an arm off the main shaft of the trubine and hang a spring balance on it. since you know the length of the arm from the main shaft you can figure the torque of the wind turbine. and then you unhook the balance and count how many rpm the turbine does with a stopwatch and a student counting.

torque(NM) X speed(rad/sec) = power (w)


easier than an ammeter