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The ultimate project goal of “The Fuel Cell Future” is for each team to design and build a small car powered by a fuel cell and/or battery, but several steps lead up to that product. Following is a brief list of activities from each Discovery Weekend, to be updated as the year progresses.
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| Discovery Weekend 1 |
Discovery Weekend 1 consisted mostly of innovative building and learning how fuel cells fit into the “big picture” of population growth, worldwide energy sources, and efficiency. The students worked on teams to build “rovers” out of everyday items such as milk cartons, straws, and CD’s – then they raced! Later in the day, the teams collected data from a battery and motor circuit and calculated the efficiency of the system.
Click here for pictures.
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| Discovery Weekend 2 |
Discovery Weekend 2 presented students and teachers with concepts such as fuel cell chemistry, gear ratios, and torque and speed calculations. Each team built two fuel cell-powered car prototypes – one for high torque and one for high speed. Then TechSTEP faculty and mentors led the teams in gear calculations and strategies. One of our TechSTEP high school science teachers presented some info about the history and chemistry of electrolysis and fuel cells. Finally, the students and teachers learned a little more about SolidWorks modeling software and their design specifications for the TechSTEP Challenge Weekend. Click here for pictures from Teacher Workshop and Discovery Weekend 2
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Other resources from Discovery Weekend 2: Gear PowerPoint, Gear Problems, Speed Car Plans, Torque Car Plans, “Electrolysis in a Nutshell” Presentation, Design Competition Guidelines, Presentation on Presentations (taken from Louisiana Tech freshman engineering classes).
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| Teacher Workshop 3 |
Teacher Workshop 3 gave the teachers a chance to “go deeper” with some of the concepts covered previously in the year. The morning session focused on modeling population and resource data using Microsoft Excel, while the afternoon included collecting torque and speed data and creating a torque-speed curve for our motor. Click here for pictures from Teacher Workshop 3!
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| Challenge Weekend |
The Challenge Weekend presented student teams with several competitions, including a speed race and a tug-of-war competition. Each school’s team came with two car designs, one with speed maximized and one with torque maximized. Each team also prepared a PowerPoint presentation that communicated their design process and test results. To connect students’ projects to the “real world,” a fuel cell researcher and Louisiana Tech faculty member shared with the group and then toured research labs in our Institute for Micromanufacturing. Finally, the students were able to hear from their student mentors about college life in engineering and science fields. Click here for pictures from the Challenge Weekend!
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LA Tech STEP
Louisiana Tech University
600 W. Arizona, Bogard 208,
P.O. Box 10348,
Ruston, LA 71272-0046
(318) 257-4647
Copyright 2007 |
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