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Kevin,
we haven't made one of these ( as such) but I;ve seen a range of similar set ups in a few centres.
My thoughts would be that such a small car ( and hence small pv) wont give you enough drive. Plus the challenge of
making such a small car, and making it rugged enough /cheap enough to survive the expected drops etc. and the kids would still not be able to be steer them, and would need to "chase" the cars with the lights which might also give some troubles.
I have seen electric trains set up with lights and PV and these are ok but not great.
You could cheaply and without a lot of technical wizardry set up a slot car track, with each lane linked to a pv ( and or battery)
the cars and their maintenance would therefore be relatively straight forward -But on going-. the PV's and the wiring and the lights could be fixed ( and therefore less trouble).
to give the kids some challenge the lights might need to be reflected onto the pv ( using a small hand held plastic mirror).. this becomes the speed control....
give them a large low intensity light source and have multiple mirrors. the "winner" is then the one that can co-opt the most number of people to take up and direct the light.
perhaps this might also go someway towards addressing the points raised in david's post - which highlights the loss that peter will be to the sector, and
also highlights the risks of having people that understand effective science communication and discovery based learning disconnected from the design/engineering side of exhibit development -
we all seen the results.....
all the best for the year ahead solving these sorts of problems.
Dr Stuart Kohlhagen
Manager Research and development
Questacon
The National Science and technology Centre
Canberra Australia
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network on behalf of David Savory
Sent: Fri 31/12/2010 4:36 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Toy solar car exhibit sought
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Peter Anderson and I collaborated last year on some electricity exhibits that were going to focus on alternate means for generating electricity. We wanted to focus on solar power and PV cells and ran up against this very idea. We were against it because we didn't see the value of "visitor as the energy source"; we wanted to emphasize "visitor as clever energy harvester." We thought a better, deeper engagement would involve the visitor engineering a design solution such that a vehicle would meet some expectation (number of laps, highest speed, greatest towing power) with whatever solar energy was available. This was deemed to be more of a program than an exhibit. Peter and I rolled our eyes at the final exhibit in which visitors have to move mesh clouds out from between PV cells and a light source to make an LED light meter light up.
David Savory
Content Developer, Community Engagement
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