The Awesome Rubber Band Car Wins!

Erion, Nikita, and I made a rubber band car. We made it differently from the directions told us to, because we wanted it to behave differently. We also had some ideas about how we might make it better. You can read the basic instructions on the PBS Kids website.

Deviating from the directions worked for us! We beat Jake and Zeke's rubber band powered car in a race. The car was fast and could last, or run, a long. We used putty, duct tape, skewers, faucet washers, CDs, and a rubber band to make the vehicle. The cardboard was 5 by 6 inches long. The rubber band car had a extra pair of wheels and customized wheels.

The following video clip shows a giant rubber band car made for humans to ride. It is from the Makers' Faire in Austin. The two DESIGN SQUAD engineers are not Adam or Judy. Rather, they are hosts from an earlier season of the show.

Construct A Cake on PBS Kids's DESIGN SQUAD

Today, I went on PBS Kids and had a chance to sketch a cake. On the website, you can log on and pick a wish that says, "I wish I could make a cake that moves." You can then sketch a cake that you think might be able to move. You can be as creative as you desire. Like I did, my cake was a cake that an alien had crash-landed in from mars. Other people took a more literal approach -- and like Judy and Adam of DESIGN SQUAD -- actually used some engineering know-how to make theirs.

DESIGN SQUAD is made up of Judy and Adam.

Judy and Adam were the two who helped engineer a cake that could move. Judy and Adam also have lots of other videos where they construct other things that are loads of fun.

Judy and Adam's main purpose is to help regular kids construct their dreams through engineering.

Here at The Hillwood Herald, we had the awesome opportunity of meeting Judy and Adam. We also got to talk to them about how they got the ideas to make all of their amazing creations. You can read my post about their in-classroom visit and the Herald interview here.

Judy Lee and Her Life of Engineering

Inventors Digest recently interviewed Judy Lee about her life as an engineer. You may recall that The Hillwood Herald also interviewed Judy and her engineering friend, Adam.

In this article, Judy talks about her early life and decision to become an engineer. Judy became interested in engineering because her father was a civil engineer. While she is certainly not the only female engineer, she talks about what it's like to be in a profession that has been dominated by men.

Judy liked to take objects apart and see how it worked, then she attempted to fix the object. She built forts in woods and played in creeks. Judy didn't know what engineering was when she was high school and college. She only knew that you have to have " a stong foundation in math and science"

Judy was good at math and science, so she tried engineering. She loves trying new things and "getting her hands dirty."

Judy and Adam are part of an upcoming PBS Kids show. The Hillwood Herald staff members did many of their engineering experiments, and we'll be sure to report on their upcoming experiments. The following information is from the PBS website:

PBS Kids Go! will launch the new Design Squad Nation (10 episodes) series, a spin-off of the engineering-focused kids competition series Design Squad, Wednesday, January 26, 2011 (check local listings).  Targeted to tweens/teens/families, Design Squad Nation will follow engineer co-hosts Judy Lee and Adam Vollmer as they travel across the country and around the world working with kids to get active, take risks, collaborate with different people and use science, math, and technology to solve real problems and create things.  The Design Squad Nation website features activities corresponding to challenges on the show to figure out solutions.  The site also features a blog with a range of engineering and DIY content from across the web.  Viewers can also follow Design Squad Nation on Facebook and Twitter.  

If you like to read more coverage of Judy and Adam's work, click here.

Steel Saddle Casting for the Bay Bridge

To build the bay bridge you have to have a main cable saddle, right? Well, yes, if you are building a suspension bridge. Bart Ney and his crew flew into Japan to make the main cable saddle at Japan Steel Sorks. The following a video of how this is made:



Saddles are large devices that hold, or "carry," the main suspension cables on the bridge. They are usually made of steel because they must be incredibly strong.

The process of making the main saddle takes about one to two weeks. What people do is use sand to make molten, and they have cranes that pick up one 90 ton and 70 ton containers of molten steel and drop it into a big bowl. The drying process takes about a week and a half. This is a site that you could go on to see other parts of the Bay Bridge that are being built, http://baybridge360.org/ and http://baybridgeinfo.org/

Hello World! A Lego Printer that Works

Student: Nikita

Watch the video below. The printer in the video was built from scratch by Squirrelfantasy, a member of the B3ta forums, which is a geeking engineering group online. Here’s his description from the YouTube page:

Lego felt tip 110″ printer connected to an Apple Mac. This is not a kit you can buy and does not use mindstorms. I designed/built/coded it all from scratch including analog motor electronics, sensors and printer driver, the USB interface uses a “wiring” board.

Use the above description to write a news story about this videoclip. Include information such as what do you like about it and what skills would be involved in building a printer with Legos. Also, tell readers what "Hello World" means. Hint: Consult this Wikipedia page for a definition. Remember to include the five W's of a news story: who, what, when, where, and why.

Embed the code for the video into your post. Ms. Moorhead can show you how.

Tell PBK Kids About Your Design Squad Antics

Students: Everyone

Go to the contact form on the PBS Kids website, and tell the DESIGN SQUAD team about your experiences at Hillwood with Adam and Judy. Include links to all of your Hillwood Herald articles from the DESIGN SQUAD experiments. (If you consistently included your name and "design squad" as a label you can simply search for those word for all of your related work.) Be sure to let the DESIGN SQUAD team know what worked best. Also, write about your favorite part of speaking with either Judy or Adam. Speak with Ms. Moorhead before you send in your comments.