At Sandburg High School in Palos Township, physics teacher Troy Gobble and math teacher Glenn Arena scheduled their classes during the same time period so they could team up on projects that bring the academic lesson into action.
The cooperation just made sense, Gobble said.
“We try to use physics topics with math concepts,” he explained. “The kids usually use a lot of calculations to work on these projects.”
Students recently were assigned the challenge of answering a question of force and torque: How much weight can a four-wheel contraption made from a rat trap, rubber bands and miscellaneous toy parts pull?
Students designed homemade miniature trucks that used the power of the rat trap spring to propel the vehicles. The goal was to travel at least one meter dragging the most weight; the winning entry pulled 35 pounds, said Gobble.
The students practiced their engineering skills as they varied the length of the wheel base, wheel size and other factors.
“We lengthened the bar to increase the leverage,” said Monica Walker, 16, a sophomore from Orland Park. “We pulled two kilograms (about five pounds), but we haven’t maxed out yet,” she said referring to further trials that will gradually test greater amounts of weight.
The students have created miniature roller coasters, cannons, catapults and other experiments in engineering, said Arena.
“They’re doing stuff that they would normally be doing in college design classes,” he said.
