June 4: Engineering Design Process

Skinny Mobile (fig.1)

The Engineering Design Process

Creating a mode of transportation with only K'NEX (a.k.a the Skinny Mobile)

After being assigned the new task of creating a mode of transportation with only K'NEX, my team did a little modeling to see if creating a wheel was possible. After creating a single wheel, we decided that our plan of action was to make two wheels connected by longer pieces. These connected longer pieces housed horizontal pieces that acted as shelves for our cargo (an eraser). As we began to build, we discovered that the K'NEX had restraints for how we could connect them. It took a lot of trial and error to see if we could achieve our plan as we intended or not. At first, we used very long parts for the body, but we then changed to shorter pieces to add stability. This entire design process showed me that you can always improve your design to make it work better, even if it worked to begin with. At the very end, we had difficulty with the wheels getting caught. Because of this, we added cylindrical pieces into the wheel design, so they had room to move. This greatly improved the movement of our Skinny Mobile (fig. 1). This reiterated the need for improvement and forced me to be very creative with the supplies I was given. If I had more time with my creation, I would have liked to make it even shorter, like a motorcycle, to further help with stability. Overall, this learning exercise made me use my thinking brain.