So, I am going back to work at the Montessori School that I used to work at a couple years back (yay, employmen!). It's kind of a family operation, and my dad and I will be co-teaching science to the 4th-8th graders. He's done great things with the science program so far, and managed to send more kids to the California State Science Fair than any other school in the state. One kid took 2nd place.
Anyway, we have been discussing the idea of using motor vehicles to help teach a number of concepts, like the basics of physics and thermodynamics: simple machines, gearing, acceleration, friction, conversion of energy into different forms. And also teach them to work on mechanical things, and understand cars and driving. The kids are decent with electronics. It's cool to see a bunch of 6th grade girls wielding soldering irons.
Kind of thinking of using a competition kart for the basis. Start by pulling and rebuilding a simple 4-stroke motor, and teaching them about how that works. Then put together the whole chassis. We could then offer motivated families the opportunity to auto-x with it. Maybe put together a couple of carts, and start a little team, which could be great publicity for the school.
Any thoughts or ideas on what else we could do with something like this? I think it would be totally awesome if we could do a challenge car, but we don't have the facilities. One kid and his dad picked up an old MGB for $500, and I'm going to suggest they challenge prep it.
