Tuesday After School - Shipping Crane Week 3
To start week 3 of our project we looked at some images of cranes from the Port of Oakland to gain an understanding of how they work and we discussed how we could engineer our design to be sturdy enough to pick up and move a 5 gallon bucket of water. Dividing into two teams (Crane and Container), Tinkerers started by reflecting on the steps completed last week and making sketches for todays ideas.
Leo draws his ideas for a mechanism to keep the crane balanced
The two teams eagerly picked up their clamps and drills and set forth completing the crane tower and the bucket container. There was terrific teamwork to make sure that the crane tower was finished by the end of the day.
Leo followed through with his design by using the drill press to make a model of the rotating crane arm. Meanwhile, Tyler started tinkering with pulleys and eyebolt and the rest of the group worked on assembling the crane arm by joining a couple of 2x3's together.
By the end of our build session we:
- raised the 6' tower
- built walls for our container (which will hold the 5 gallon bucket)
- built an 8' crane arm
- designed a crane arm model with eyebolts and pulleys
We ended the day with a reflection of the pluses (brainstorming on the pulley design and collaboration to raise the crane tower) and the deltas (better communication of ideas, listening to our teammates, wobbly sids of the container) and the solutions to our deltas (letting everyone have a say, taking time to hear our peers, and understanding that it isn't more screws in the wood, but screws placed diagonally that will keep the wood from wobbling).