Dragster Challenge

Day 2

00:00 - 00:10 - Attendance, Kit Retrieval, and Opening Remarks

00:10 - 00:20 - Challenge Overview, Resource Links and Tutorials

00:20 - 01:30 - Robot Build and Test Arenas

01:30 - 01:40 - Break

01:40 - 02:30 - Dragster Testing

02:30 - 02:40 - Final Dragster Runs

02:40 - 02:50 - Tear Down and Kit Organization

02:50 - 03:00 - Closing Thoughts

Dragster

The goal of this activity is to get students to move beyond the box challenge of understanding beams and connectors to taking learning further with movement. Students will be challenged to develop a very simple LEGO EV3 2 motor car that moves accordingly to their code. This activity is building (no pun intended) upon the skills and ideas learned during the first challenge.

Additionally, the end result is to create the fastest moving robot. This classic challenge is one that never gets old and leads to some great engineering designs and gear comprehension. Students will be challenged to design and build a dragster than can measure and display its speed as it races down a 15 foot track.

Objectives:

To develop the skills to design and build a two motor car that is firm enough to allow movement.
To develop additional experience with beam and peg construction.
To develop knowledge to use coding skills to have a two motor car move through a course
1. Program using the motor blocks
2. Move the robot forward and straight
3. Track the speed and time of the robot
4. Utilize sensors to trigger a reaction

Materials

LEGO EV3 Mindstorms kit

Use up to three motors from the kit

Time Allotted

2 hours depending on prior knowledge of students and how advanced you want to take the activity (see rubric)

Setup

We use our old FLL mats from previous years. We tape two of them together creating a 15 foot track. If the robot veers off the mat is is disqualified, but providing them 4 feet of track width is plenty of space. We create a starting line 6 inches in and a finish line 6 inches in from the mats. Robots can be as big as the students want using the pieces they have.

We use an old 2x4 board as the starting block so when we raise the bar up the robot should engage in the race.

We will have a computer where we enter the time of each run to be displayed on an overhead projector.

Build a Dragster Rubric

Bronze

A two motor car was designed and built that can complete the 15 foot track.

Silver

A two motor car was designed and built that can race when the ultrasonic sensor is triggered when the board behind the robot drops.

Gold

A two motor car was designed and built that can race when the ultrasonic sensor is triggered when the board behind the robot drops. The robot stops when it reaches the finish line using a color sensor. The robot also displays the total speed in cm/seconds to complete the 15 foot track.

Platinum

Tutorials

Wheel Converter Tool

LEGO Wheel Chart

Sample Code

Google Sites

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