All About Gears

Lesson Objectives:

To understand the purpose of gears in a robotic device

ALL students will: Be able to change the direction of a motor

MOST students will: Be able to increase the speed of a motor

SOME students may: Be able to increase the strength of a motor

Gear up: To increase speed use a large LEGO gear connected to the motor (“drive gear”), connected to a smaller gear (“follower gear”).

Gear down: To reduce speed and increase torque, use a small LEGO drive gear connected to a motor, turning a large follower gear.

Gears ev3.pdf

Below are examples of how you can change the direction of a gear by 90 degrees.

1. Create and program a device which changes the direction of the driver gear by 90 degrees.

2. Take a 5 second video of this device performing its function

3. Once the video has been taken, you can dismantle your device.

Below is an example of how you can increase the speed of the motors output. The motor with the red dot is being driven by the motor.

1. Create and program a device which increases the speed of the motors output.

2. Take a 5 second video of this device performing its function.

3. Once the video has been taken, you can dismantle your device.

Below is an example of how you can increase the torque of the motors output. The motor with the red dot is being driven by the motor.

1. Create and program a device which increases the speed of the motors output.

2. Take a 5 second video of this device performing its function.

3. Once the video has been taken, you can dismantle your device.

1. Create a Google Slides presentation

2. Insert your videos in to separate slides

3. On the relevant slide, discuss how you changed direction, geared up and geared down.

Look back at your videos. What gear ratios did you create?

Discuss with a partner.

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