Make Project Jack B, Josh C and Jeremy J

Topic and Reasoning  In the beginning our essential question was can we modify an Remote Control car so that it is faster, more durable and can ride on all terrains.  We chose this topic because we though it would be interesting to learn about how an R/C car works and what is inside the car.

Discovery  What we hoped to discover by the end of the project was how we can either modify the voltage that the motor takes in or modify the motor itself to make the car faster. We also wanted to try to figure out how we could waterproof the car and add paddle tires so that the car could paddle through water.

Car Taken Apart

Team Meetings and Work Plan  We have a team meeting every class period. During this team meeting we discussed what we are going to work on during class. We also talked about how we were going to document (pictures, video, etc.) and who was going to document that day.  Our work plan each day usually consisted of testing the car, taking it apart or trying to figure out what was wrong with the car and why it would not run. This usually took up most of the class and we would set some time aside to document at the end of the class.

Research  For the first few class periods our group researched how to make the car faster, enable it to have a higher durability and how to make paddle tires for the wheels. We found videos and articles on the internet. We found out how to make the car faster from a video demonstration on YouTube. We used this technique on the car and it worked.

Trials and Team Assignments  We did a few trials throughout the project on different terrains. We did trials when we started the project and we did trials when we replaced the battery pack. We tested on Tile, Carpet and Asphalt. We timed each trial and then divided the length by the time.  Throughout the project we cycled through three different roles. These roles are Build, Videographer and Documentation. We all got a chance to experience these roles throughout the project.

Example of a Speed Trial

Effort and Changes  Throughout the project all of the members of our team worked collaboratively to accomplish our task. We were engaged most of the time but once in a while we get distracted or dis-engaged.  Throughout our make project we have made changes to our original plan. When we saw how long it took just to add the battery pack and the amount of time we had left we decided it would be too hard to waterproof the car and to add paddle tires so we decided to only change the speed.

Documentation and Feedback  Throughout our project we have been documenting our progress on the car through pictures, video, text and audio. Each day we uploaded the media, explained in detail what we did that class period and we explained how we worked together.  We have gotten feedback a few times throughout project but we should have tried to incorporate more feedback into our documentation. We got feedback before we changed the battery pack and after we changed it. We used the feedback to make changes to our project.

Conclusion  We think that the project was successful. We think this because the first part of our essential question says “Is it possible to make an R/C car faster.” We fulfilled this part of the task and this was our main question.  One thing we would do differently is to not try to replace the motor or the gears. This took up three or four class periods that we could have used to make the car more durable or to test speed.  We conclude that our project was successful and that we fulfilled a lot of our task. We used our class time wisely and for the most part our work was good quality.