Kinetic Raceway:
A Kids STEM Kit
A marble race track STEM kit designed to help teach kids about kinetic and potential energy. The concept and design was done by me! The kit comes in a box (of which I don’t have photos of, only the design files for the sides of the box), with a science lesson and instructions on how to assemble. The pieces included the wooden pieced (laser cut & engraved) for the box at the bottom and the track, lane dividers (3D printed), marbles, crash sensor, popsicle stick, buttons, LED lights, a speaker, and an Aurduino computer.
The race should function as follows:
The user switched the computer on with a switch form the outside of the box at the bottom. When the red “start” button is pressed, LED lights from red to green count down while a speaker plays sounds and racing music. when the marbles are released down the track and trigger the crash sensor, the speakers signals the end of the race and plays victory music.
Year
Spring 2024
Student Project
Sketches:
A look at initial the idea, planning, execution. I had to spend a lot of extra time planning the finger joints and taking measurement to make everything fit together properly. I planned how the lights, computer and speaker would all fit into place, and what holes needed to be cut. This is when I made my game plan!
Prototyping:
This is where I rigged up my wiring and spent the most time coding. Originally I was going to use an ultrasonic sensor to sense the marbles passing by, but the marbles ended up being too fast so I replaced it with a crash sensor.
For the body of the project I prototyped by laser cutting into cardboard before committing to cutting and engraving plywood.
Luckily, when 3D printing the lane splitters they came out the way I wanted the first time! So that was a big win. Everything worked as planned when assembled and I went forward with designing the vinyl for the outside of the box and Instruction booklet.
The Box:
I found the box to be relitively straight foreward actually. I also feel like it represents my project well!
I ended up gifting this project to a family member and they had thought is was a realy manufactured STEM kit. So I would count that as a win!
Instruction Booklet:
I designed this booklet to be cohesive with the box and branding. Of course, I had to start with she short science lesson at the beginning before we got into the actual instruction. I illustrated all of the pieces for the user and then gave instructions, step-by-step.
The Final Project:
he entire project came together exactly how I had imagined! I wasn’t able to take high quality portfolio worthy photos of this project, but I was able to get a video of the race track functioning!