1.

Project Description

Basically, your team will be creating a water-powered vehicle given certain rules and restrictions as to vehicle weight, power source, and budget considerations.  Throughout the project, you will be responsible for turning in more and more pieces of what will, in the end, amount to one final report.  Each time you turn it in, it will be in a state of further refinement.  In completing this report, you will use a given template.  This will be described in more detail after the design rules and restrictions have been discussed. 

2.

Design Rules and Restrictions

·         The wheeled vehicle must remain in contact with the ground at all times.

·         Energy transfer from the pop can full of water to the wheeled vehicle must occur over a period of time which is greater than 5.00 seconds.

·         The mechanism is ranked more highly if it travels farther from its starting.

●     The mechanism is ranked more highly if it is judged to be more creative by the faculty team.

●    No team may spend more than $15.00 on its mechanisms.  If you have access to material on which you do not spend money, the cost on the material does not
      count against the $15.00.  A record of your project expenses, with supporting receipts, must be submitted in your final report.
 

3.

Assessment

Assessment for this design project may be made via direct observation of your team, the team design journal, team written reports, team oral reports, and the final product itself. 
 

4.

Design Journals

Your team will keep a design journal, documenting and detailing the steps involved in the creation of your design.  This journal may be included in the assessment.  For your team, it will be a valuable tool in the creation of the written report. 
 

5.

Written Reports

Remember that in your report, you will be describing your progress in designing the system to people who have not participated in the deliberations of your team, that is, the instructors grading the project.  Actually, you will be turning the same report in multiple times, and each time it will be in a state of further refinement. Please do not jump ahead of schedule; you need to wait for feedback on reports before continuing on. 

Because we want to clearly emphasize the steps that you will be making in the design process, the instructors have designed the format of your report and prepared a template document (Traveling Water Group Design Report) for you to work with. This document is a “skeleton” having the final format and organization that we desire with the details to be supplied by you, the designers. This template document also has detailed instructions on how it is to be completed.

 The final report will be written in increments, due at different checkpoints throughout the duration of the project.  These are as follows:

•            Submission #1                  
           (1 week into project)
           Problem Definition    
           Report Sections 1.0, 2.0, 3.0
   

•            Submission #2                         
           (2.5 weeks into project)            
           Idea Generation                  
           Report Sections 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0
   

•            Submission #3                                  
           (3 weeks into project)              
           Decision Making                       
           Report Sections 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0
   

•            Submission #4                                              
     (7 weeks into project)                              
     Final Report                                          
     Report Sections 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0

6.

The Competition

The competition to display the vehicles will take place about 5 weeks into the project.  Prizes will be given to the vehicles selected as most creative and the vehicles that travel the farthest.  These prizes, however, will have NOTHING to do with the grade you are assigned for the project.
 

7.

Oral Reports

Teams will present oral reports at the conclusion of the project, giving the other students an overview of their project—what they designed, the process they used, what they learned, etc.  These may be used as part of the project assessment; more than anything, they will allow other students to learn from the successes, etc. of other groups.