In this project were were given the task of creating a simple arcade game that would help teach 3rd graders "how things move". Our arcade game had to include at least two different electrical components, have a battery source, overall teach the players "how things move", be free standing and easily transportable, and use materials found in the classroom. In our group we first brainstormed different ideas we thought 3rd graders would be interested in; this included a shootout arcade game, air hockey, and a rotating maze. We were then able to go talk to our clients, the 3rd graders, to get a better idea of what type of things they were interested in, in order for us to come up with a theme for our game. After the meeting, all of the clients seemed to be into basketball, so we decided to create a shootout basketball arcade game, that when you get the ball into one of the cups, a light would come on according to the cup the ball was placed in.
Our Final Design
Engineering Notebook
Final Calculations
Total Voltage: 3.69 V Total Current: 19.06 mA
Reflection
Although I was absent during the first two work days, my teammates were quickly able to catch me up and fill me in on what they worked on while I was gone. We all worked together to come up with different ideas that we believed 3rd graders would be interested in. While our ideas were very broad, it gave us a better chance to be able to come up with something our clients were interested in. When we started on the actual building of the project we all worked well together and everyone was able to put some sort of effort towards the project, wether it was messing with the electrical, cutting/ glueing, or finding different decorations to make our game more interesting and intriguing. My main role in the group was finding more ways to make our game enticing to the 3rd graders, and revising our initial design to make it more simple to build. Our group was able to manage our time very well. There was no point during the work days where we were stressing about running out of time, or worried that we would have to finish the project at home. During the final work day we were able to use it to work ahead in our engineering notebook and fix any problems that had come up in the building of the project. Through completing this project I was able to learn about the various amounts of power you need in order to light up a few small LEDs. I also learned about the importance of resistors and how easy it can be to blow an LED or short a fuze. The most difficult part was learning how to use the breadboards, due to the fact that I had never used one before. When your LED didn't light up how you thought it would, it was hard to determine where you had gone wrong. Wether your power source was bad, you blew an LED, or maybe your wiring wasn't in the correct line on the breadboard. Our machine was able to help the 3rd graders learn "how things move" by including the importance of gravity and force. The amount of force the player applies to throw the ball determines how far the ball will travel. They will have to find the correct amount of force to apply in order to get the ball in one of the cups. We could have improved this project by creating a launcher to launch one of the balls towards the cups.