1575B STEM Chair
s.brown4550
Entry ID #: 5235
Created: Wed, Jan 10, 2018 3:23 AM
Recycling Challenge Through our mentoring of an FLL Elementary School Robotics team and our ever-growing pile of abandoned game pieces, we saw our chance to help upcoming engineers through their questioning of STEM and its fundamentals. Having new experiences can help you discover a new passion, and gives you the contacts to pursue that passion. We are donating our "STEM Chair" to a local library that host robotics meetings during the week. The first step is defining the problem: kids, teens, and adults are not discovering their passion until later in life. We want to get children involved early on so they can go to college and enjoy their passion as soon as possible. To then help our brainstorming, we referenced the internet for help and inspiration. Two key designs we remember vividly were a table made from skyrise towers and a base plate along with a workbench made from sky-rise cubes and field mats. After outreaching to help our brainstorming, we felt readier and more prepared to convert our ideas into possible solutions. Initially, we started out with the possibility of a coat hanger, using a mobile goal as the base, the hanging tube from starstruck, and a star at the top to hold coats. This would’ve possibly worked if we could use current year’s game pieces, but because of that, we had to scrap the idea after much trial and error. Then, we moved onto a couch, using beams to support it and cubes as cushions, but this was also dropped later on when we recognized that we were low on resources, not having many fences or any cubes for cushions. This led to our final design, as it used fewer parts but still served the function our couch had: to provide a creative way to have kids inquire STEM. By using the fence from Starstruck, we created a strong, stable, supporting frame. The wooden fence had significantly more structural integrity than any other reusable game piece. The pipes from Nothing but Net were split symmetrically with a table saw, and filed down to create a smooth, rounded edge. Red tiles were measured and cut to size, as it serves as a cushion and helps distribute the weight onto the beams below. In order to ensure safety for anyone who decided to rest in the chair, we used Beam Deflection and Modulus of Elasticity to measure how much give the wood would provide. In any wooden structure, such as our chair, there must be a certain level of give, or the tension combined with weight would break it. Following the completion of the chair, we packed it up and proceeded to drive it to the local library. As we unloaded and placed the chair, it immediately attracted children and smiles of all kinds. That alone put a smile on our face. We were not expecting to be asked so many question within the first five minutes.And all it took was a convoluted idea to make a constructive future.
