2013 K'NEXpert Classroom Challenge

Bring the excitement of hands-on learning to your classroom with the 2013 K'NEXpert Classroom Challenge. STEM based challenges require students to apply science, technology, engineering and math knowledge and then design and build models for their grade level category.

The K'NEXpert Classroom Challenge...

• Excites students' interest and motivates them to learn.
  
• Challenges students to apply an organized, logical strategy as they design, build and problem-solve.
  
• Encourages students to use acquired science, technology, engineering and math knowledge and skills.
  
• Inspires creativity and team-work.
  
  
• Helps students to relate concepts to the world they live in.
  
  

Each 2013 K'NEXpert Classroom Challenge Award Winner will receive:

• $350 K'NEX Education shopping spree
  
  
• FREE K'NEX building set for each child. ($20 value)
  
  
• K'NEXpert Classroom Challenge Award.
  
  
• Classroom Photo Gallery page at www.knexeducation.com.
  
  

Farms are exciting places! Your challenge is to build a farm using K'NEX pieces. Include animals, people, tractors and other farm equipment, buildings, fences, crops… anything you like! Your farm can be ultra-modern, or if you prefer, a farm as it would have appeared 100 years ago. Let your creativity be your guide.

If you do not live on or near a farm, why not look in books or on the internet to find out more about farms and farm equipment before you start building?

Complete the following and submit them with up to 6 digital photos of your farm:

• A list of the animals included on your farm.
  
  
• How many of each animal did you include?
  
  
• Look up information about farms in your state or country. What crops and/or animals are raised in your state?
  
• If you wanted to mount your farm on a piece of plywood, what size piece would you need? Describe the process you used to determine the size of the piece of plywood you would need.

Before the industrial revolution, all machinery was driven by hand, by animal power, by wind power, or by water power. A stream would be diverted so that the water pushed paddles on a water wheel, which then drove machinery via axles, gears, or other simple machines.

Your challenge is to build a water wheel, using K'NEX pieces, which uses water to drive a hammer or some other useful device. If you do not have any of the special K'NEX gear wheels, do not worry – you can make your own gear wheels by attached eight short green rods onto a white connector.

Complete the following and submit them with up to 6 digital photos of your water powered device.

• List the simple machines that are used in your water powered device. Describe how each simple machine multiplies force, multiplies distance, changes the direction of an applied force, or some combination of these three.
• Carefully pour water on the blades of your device and include a picture of this process with the digital photos you submit.
• Complete some research of water wheels and describe three different ways they have been used through history.
• How many times will your water wheel turn if you pour 2 liters of water over the blades of the wheel? (Complete three trials to determine an average.)

Cable cars, also known as aerial tramways, have been used around the world for hundreds of years, to carry tourists and skiers to the tops of mountains. Your challenge is to design and build a cable car system with K'NEX pieces. The cable car must carry passengers up a cable that is 3 meters long or more, at an angle of at least 30 degrees. You can use a ball of string in addition to your K'NEX pieces, and a K'NEX motor would be useful, but is not essential.

Ideally, your cable car should be able to seat at least 6 passengers protected from the weather, and should dock inside a K'NEX cable car station at the top and bottom of the slope. You can have two members of your team hold the stations in place to keep the stations from moving while the cable car is moving.

Complete the following and submit them with up to 6 digital photos of your cable car system:

• Measure the angle formed by the cable as it extends up the mountain.
  
  
• Measure the length of the cable and the horizontal distance between the two K'NEX Cable Car Stations. Which measurement is larger? Explain why?
• Describe how you designed the cable car for safety.
  
  
• How long does it take the cable car to move up to the mountain? How fast does the cable car move? How could you change your system to increase the speed of the cable car?
• Describe the process your team used to solve this challenge activity.
  
  

New Category for Grades 7 – 9!

You have been asked to enter an engineering competition to design the main athletics stadium for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Your design will take the form of a K'NEX model of the stadium you propose, to a scale of 1/200th or larger. (This means that the size of the athletics field inside your stadium model must be at least 90 cm by 40 cm). To enable athletics events to continue in the rain, your stadium must also have a roof which can be opened and closed.

The judges of this engineering competition are seeking an innovative, eye-catching design, which will also be quick to build and relatively low cost.

Complete the following and submit them with up to 6 digital photos of your stadium and roof mechanism:

• A short written description of why you believe your stadium design meets the above description.
• A description of the science behind the mechanical system you used to open and close the roof of the stadium.
  • What simple machines, etc. were employed?
    
    
  • Do they multiply force, multiply distance, and/or change the direction of the applied force?
  • What is the mechanical advantage of the mechanical system? (Show the mathematics you used to determine the mechanical advantage.)
  • If there is an input force of 2 Nm applied to the system, calculate the output force that would be generated to operate the roof system. (Show the mathematics used.)
• Show one digital picture that demonstrates that your roof is able to hold a 2 pound mass.
• Determine a cost for each of the K'NEX pieces and demonstrate that you are able to find the total cost of the parts used to build the stadium. (Show the mathematics used.)
  • Describe how you would design a spreadsheet to compute the total cost of the stadium.