Yet another great week of our WEhicular motion academy has concluded! Tuesday began with a captivating lesson on a relatively obscure but festive mode of transportation: bobsleds. First, students learned about the forces of friction and gravity as well as how they acted upon objects. They then put this to the test when they were tasked with building long-distance bobsleds: the farthest distance won. They were given the following materials: felt, paper plates, tape, and ping pong balls (as passengers). After a very close competition, team United States of America (once again) came out victorious with the most successful bobsled!
Thursday was a less traditional lesson—split into two individual parts. The first lesson was an introduction to magnetic levitation locomotives: a type of train that uses magnetism to levitate above the tracks. This technology allows maglev trains to reach ultra-high speeds and operate with minimal friction, making them faster, smoother, and more energy-efficient than traditional trains. Maglev trains have been in use in some countries for several decades, but they are still not as widespread as traditional trains due to their high cost and the need for specialized infrastructure. They learned about the developing maglev infrastructure in Japan and were absolutely awestruck by just how quickly these vehicles could move! After a quick demonstration on maglevs (pictured below), we took a complete 180-degree turn by taking a look at a coding studio (Vex VR). With it, they were asked to write code that would knock down five castles in the least amount of time using code blocks. In a much-needed win, Team Discovery was able to quickly develop functional code, pulling themselves within striking distance of Team United States of America.
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