I have had such a blast racing slot cars in the last couple years, that I want to share that with a younger generation. Cruzin Bob Scott encouraged me to share some of what I am trying here on the Blog, so here goes!
First, let me say that my day job right now is teaching science to 7th, 8th, and 9th graders at a small public charter school in Arizona. This can be an exhausting age group, but very rewarding. Dealing with 8 or 10 of them at once at a track, may not be everyone's cup of tea-- I totally understand that. I've seen Bob in action, and it takes a special person to be out in public with a mobile track for hours each day. You are never "with" this age group. You are either "ahead" of them, or "trampled" by them.
Why do this?
Well, I see these students every day, and while I'm impressed by their internet and computer skills, many of them are not exposed to much hands-on building or electronics at home. I've had some students who have never held a screwdriver before. Many of them have no patience whatsoever for an extended project-- which is age appropriate. They love competition, but still need to learn about fairness, cooperation, planning ahead, taking responsibility, and completing what they start. So slot car racing is a perfect fit!
Slot cars offer: a low entry cost (for them), personal equipment they can build and adjust, a chance to compete against their buddies, no batteries to charge up, no bad weather to spoil plans, and fairly easy access to "real" racing. I mean, it doesn't take long before a group of them gets the hang of it and has real competition. RC cars, for example, are quite expensive up front, and require a fair amount of driving skills before a group can get a real door-to-door competition going.
At this age, the boys and a few of the girls have a real interest in cars, but they are not old enough to even think about driving. So this gives a great outlet for their automotive DNA. Instead of just modelling or reading the car magazines, they can actually go racing!
While they are having fun, they are learning dynamic lessons on applied physics and other areas-- What happens to mass as it is highly accelerated and then turned suddenly without slowing? Since momentum is conserved, what happens to the cars when a fast one runs into a slow one, or the wall for that matter? What unusual vectors of motion are produced when two open-wheel slot cars touch their spinning wheels? How can I keep the dc circuit complete from one braid up through my motor and back down? How can I connect the movement of my trigger finger to my brain? Why did my car go backwards instead of forwards on the track? Why do I need brakes? Why does going slower at times end up making me faster?
...and this all happens in the real mechanical world, not in a computer simulation!!! In the real world, when your car is not ready, you can't race. When you smash up your car in the real world, you have to fix it before you can race. In the real world, if you want your car to go faster, you have to form a hypothesis and experiment with making a change.
I'll post some pics in the next post!
Stan
