Our next project in STEM is the Hybrid Car Project. In my group, there is Tyler, Taylor and I. Our class had to build and design a car that can not run on gas, battery power, or nuclear energy. We have to get our car to go to five meters and stop while carrying 250 pounds. My group decided to make a solar powered car, which is a car that runs on solar energy.
At first, Tyler brought in a prototype with one solar panel. We were going to power it with a flashlight and use a small motor so we could do it indoors. When we built the actual car, it was too heavy so we rewired the lego motor and added on an extra two solar panels. We named our car Helios, named after the sun god.
With the flashlight not being able to power all three solar panels, we made a five meter track outside so the car could be powered by the sun. We made a braking system which is in he slideshow.
Concepts and energies
Potential Energy: Unit: Jules. Energy an object has due to its height or position.
Our car takes in 1.3 Jules of energy per second.
Kinetic Energy: Unit: Jules. Energy due to motion.
Velocity. The rate of covered time in a direction.
Potential energy of our solar panel. We first had to find the potential energy of the solar panel. To do this you need to find watt hours. To do this, you need to do amps times volts times hours. One watt hour is 3600 Jules.
Reflection
This project was probably my favorite one. Our group worked very well together. We never argued and always accepted ideas. In the beginning we couldn't come up with a way to make the car work but we plowed through the problem and came up with solutions. It was very fun working with them and i am sad that i couldn't be there to help present our final product.
I learned about many things and concepts. I learned a lot about solar panels and how to hook them up. I also became better at empathy, which was my main goal working in the group. I also learned more about how to change gears to make the car faster. a big gear attached to the motor with a smaller one makes the car faster. Vise versa. Some things i could have done better is worked a little bit more on the car outside of school. I also should have also helped more with the math portion of the project. Otherwise, I think me and my group members did an awesome job. Like I said before, this has been my favorite project.
At first, Tyler brought in a prototype with one solar panel. We were going to power it with a flashlight and use a small motor so we could do it indoors. When we built the actual car, it was too heavy so we rewired the lego motor and added on an extra two solar panels. We named our car Helios, named after the sun god.
With the flashlight not being able to power all three solar panels, we made a five meter track outside so the car could be powered by the sun. We made a braking system which is in he slideshow.
Concepts and energies
Potential Energy: Unit: Jules. Energy an object has due to its height or position.
Our car takes in 1.3 Jules of energy per second.
Kinetic Energy: Unit: Jules. Energy due to motion.
Velocity. The rate of covered time in a direction.
Potential energy of our solar panel. We first had to find the potential energy of the solar panel. To do this you need to find watt hours. To do this, you need to do amps times volts times hours. One watt hour is 3600 Jules.
Reflection
This project was probably my favorite one. Our group worked very well together. We never argued and always accepted ideas. In the beginning we couldn't come up with a way to make the car work but we plowed through the problem and came up with solutions. It was very fun working with them and i am sad that i couldn't be there to help present our final product.
I learned about many things and concepts. I learned a lot about solar panels and how to hook them up. I also became better at empathy, which was my main goal working in the group. I also learned more about how to change gears to make the car faster. a big gear attached to the motor with a smaller one makes the car faster. Vise versa. Some things i could have done better is worked a little bit more on the car outside of school. I also should have also helped more with the math portion of the project. Otherwise, I think me and my group members did an awesome job. Like I said before, this has been my favorite project.