“SECME: Igniting Minds Through STEM Education”

Basic Instructions For the Mousetrap Car Competition

Team entry: 3 students required

Design Mousetrap car construction and run

Communication Technical report writing Design drawings Team interview with Judges

Mousetrap Event Final Scoring

Total of the following scores Mousetrap car performance (100 pts max)Design drawing (50 pts max)Technical report (50 pts max)Team interview (50 pts max)

Total Max = 250 pts

Design Drawing

Paper Size (18” X 24”), 1” Margins, (plain, non-grid, 17 pound vellum sheet) No mounting or framing/ Laminating is okay

Must Show Scale and Units (use 1:1 and centimeters if possible)

Name and Label all parts of the car

Required three views (front, side, and top views)

Dimensions are required to be illustrated

Accuracy and Resemblance between car and drawing

Neatness (Ink pens, pencils, or markers may be used)

A 4" x 6" Title Legend is to be drawn in the bottom left corner of the drawing inside the 1” border with the following information:

Team name School name and address Team members names, addresses and grade levels School coordinator’s name Date of Competition

Technical Report Writing

White, 8.5” X 11” paper, 1” margins

Computer Printed, 12 pt. Type, Standard Font, Double-spaced

The Main Body of the Report (Introduction, Design, Construction Procedure, and Operation) should be a Maximum of 5 Pages

Graded onOutline

Organization

Precision

Sentence formation

Mechanics

Technical Report Organization

Cover page (required to contain) Title Name, addresses and grade of team members Team’s school name and address School system name School Coordinator’s name Date

Abstract (1/2 page summary)

Table of contents (1 page)

Introduction

Design

Construction procedure

Operation of the mousetrap car

Conclusions / Recommendations

Acknowledgements

Appendix (sketches, tables, charts etc.)

5 page maximum

Team Interview

Requirements

All three members must be present. Team Members are interviewed as a group.

Each member responds to questions

Work is students’ own

True team effort is evident

Team Interview

Evaluation Categories

Teamwork

Application of Technical Principles

Knowledge of Design

Oral Communication Skills

Mousetrap Race Scoring

Weight of Mousetrap(25 grams)

_______________

Weight of Car

Distance _______

LongestDimension

2

Goal: Minimize Weight of Car Minimize Longest Dimension Maximize Distance

Selection of Materials (Limited only by Your Imagination)

Mousetrap Chassis: wood, foam board, craft sticks, stiff wire, etc. Axles: wooden dowels, metal tubes, stiff wire, axles from old toys, etc. Wheels: CDs, wood, foam board, wheels from old toys, Metal lids, other disk-shaped objects Pull Cord: string, fishing line, etc. Adhesives: glue, tape, screws, nailsTools: compass, ruler, scissors, glue gun, pliers, cable cutters, screwdrivers, hammers, saws, drills, vice, sandpaper, files, etc.

Physics Concepts

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Physics Concepts

Friction (Traction/ Air Resistance)

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a

decompressorare needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Physics Concepts

Newton’s Laws (Law of Inertia)

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Physics Concepts

Rotational Inertia

Physics Concepts

Torque (Lever Arm and Pulling Force)

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Drive axle

Speed Placement Distance placement

Physics Concepts

Wheel-to-Axle Ratio

Distance Cars (Large Wheel-to-Axle Ratio)

Speed Cars (Small Wheel-to-Axle Ratio)

Tips

Weight of the Car: For all cars, you want to build the lightest possible vehicle. However, if your car is too light, it will not have enough traction.

Wheels: Old CDs make great wheels, but have very little traction. Stretch a wide rubber band or a balloon cut out around each wheel.

Glue: Use a quick drying hobby glue. Pay attention to the drying time specified on the bottle. Some glues will permanently set in as little as five seconds, giving you very little time to position the pieces. If you glue your fingers together (or to the car!) use acetone or nail polish remover to dissolve the glue. You may want to keep some extremely fast drying glue at hand during race day!

Pull Cord: Winding the pull cord in the wrong direction makes the car go backwards. Wind the wheels in the direction opposite to the motion you want the mouse trap car to travel, this will wind the string around the axle. you want the string to be tight so let it pull the lever arm over by itself as you wind the wheels.

Alignment: A mousetrap car that always steers to one side will not be good for competition. Use spacers and washers to help align the car.

Aerodynamics: Keep the number of flat surfaces facing the front of the car down to a minimum. Sanding the body of the car smooth also helps cut down drag.

Remember

Your final score is the total of the following scores: Score on technical report Score on car design drawing Score on the team interview Mousetrap car race score Don’t focus on the car race and forget the others!