Mousetrap Car Demonstration at Nursing Home

Last week I gave a demonstration of mousetrap cars for two different groups in a nursing home. I was concerned how interesting they would find my presentation but it was well received and they are looking forward to me presenting another project idea, I proposed model aviation.

Mousetrap Car Race 

Below is an outline of what I wanted to present, it worked well for a 40 minute presentation:

My Basic Outline for Mousetrap Car Demonstration

* Talk about my father and his farm machinery inventions.

* My interest in model airplanes led to building and flying events for kids, I wanted to expand to more types of model projects and came across mousetrap cars.

* I watched some videos of mousetrap cars on the Internet and was amazed at the number of views.

First Mousetrap Car I Design Built from Bamboo

* My purchase of the Doc Fizzix book on mousetrap cars gave me the background to design my own cars using different materials; the first car was built mainly from bamboo. I also purchased Doc Fizzix kits and started an online friendship with Doc Fizzix, Alden Balmer a truly outstanding teacher.

College for Kids Class Mousetrap Cars

* In teaching a project building class at local university, I had students build mousetrap cars every year.

Lever Arm Attached to Spring on Mousetrap Car

* Mousetrap cars are a wonderful for teaching force and motion, I would mention Newton’s Laws of Motion especially the first law relating to getting an object at rest moving.  

Large Drive Wheel Mousetrap Car

* I would demonstrate mousetrap cars with long lever arms which moved slowly, cars with short leverage arms were much faster, and a mousetrap car with a very large drive wheel is also slower.

Start of Mousetrap Car Race

* There would be a mousetrap car race between two cars. By attaching a length of yarn to mousetrap car, a person sitting could easily release the car.

Bill Kuhl
http://www.ideas-inspire.com

Related Links

http://www.docfizzix.com

http://ideas-inspire.com/mousetrap-cars/

http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2013/04/little-bit-about-my-father.html
http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2014/02/pitching-your-idea-before-shark-tank.html
http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2013/05/alden-balmer-doc-fizzix.html 
http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2017/07/college-for-kids-2017-wound-up.html
http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2014/02/mousetrap-car-progression-of-ideas.html
http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2014/03/torque-and-lever-arm-calculations-for.html

http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2014/12/newtons-laws-and-hybrid-car.html