This has been by far my favorite project. Even though it took a lot of dedication, time, and a wheelchair, it was worth it because I got to work with great friends and students. Our project was separated into three parts: a video, power point, and the actual demonstration of the product itself.
Video: Our video started off the presentation by showing all of the problems with mechanical wheelchair, such as turning around, moving in the rain, going up hill, or moving around large objects.
Video: Our video started off the presentation by showing all of the problems with mechanical wheelchair, such as turning around, moving in the rain, going up hill, or moving around large objects.
Power Point: https://prezi.com/hf3sbt3g3wax/wheeling-to-innovation/
Our power point was much more factual than our video. It explains the real problems with mechanical wheelchairs, and why manual wheelchairs may not be the best fit for everyone.
Our power point was much more factual than our video. It explains the real problems with mechanical wheelchairs, and why manual wheelchairs may not be the best fit for everyone.
The actual wheelchair:
We made the wheelchair by taking off the wheel and placing a gear on the inside, and reattaching the wheel. We then had a wooden stick attached to the arm rest that we place another, larger gear on. We connected the two gears with a bicycle chain that turned when the gears turned. We then attached a wooden rod to the top gear that when the rider rotated, it turned the wheel. This movement reduced the amount of stress on the arms and torso by 7x as much as the back and forth motion of a traditional wheelchair.
Reflection: Two things that went really well in this project were we got along well, and we all worked hard to achieve a goal no one though we were going to reach. We did have few problems though. Because this project was so complicated and had many unusual materials, it took us quite a bit of time to collect materials and build. We also had trouble with the weather. That morning, we needed to drive the wheelchair to school, but of course it was the rainiest day of the year and it wouldn't fit in any of our cars. That resulted in riding it to school in pouring rain. The wood became completely soaked through, the tape become wet and wouldn't stick, and the gears became so wet they wouldn't turn. But, as hard of workers that we were, pulled through and fixed it so it became usable again. If I could have done anything different, I would have planned transportation a lot better before the day of the presentation. One thing I think I did really well was acquiring unusual materials. Our biggest challenge was finding a wheelchair that we didn't have to spend $1000 on, and somehow in one phone call I got us one for free. Overall I am very glad I got to spend a few weeks with a great group of people and work on such a fun project.
We made the wheelchair by taking off the wheel and placing a gear on the inside, and reattaching the wheel. We then had a wooden stick attached to the arm rest that we place another, larger gear on. We connected the two gears with a bicycle chain that turned when the gears turned. We then attached a wooden rod to the top gear that when the rider rotated, it turned the wheel. This movement reduced the amount of stress on the arms and torso by 7x as much as the back and forth motion of a traditional wheelchair.
Reflection: Two things that went really well in this project were we got along well, and we all worked hard to achieve a goal no one though we were going to reach. We did have few problems though. Because this project was so complicated and had many unusual materials, it took us quite a bit of time to collect materials and build. We also had trouble with the weather. That morning, we needed to drive the wheelchair to school, but of course it was the rainiest day of the year and it wouldn't fit in any of our cars. That resulted in riding it to school in pouring rain. The wood became completely soaked through, the tape become wet and wouldn't stick, and the gears became so wet they wouldn't turn. But, as hard of workers that we were, pulled through and fixed it so it became usable again. If I could have done anything different, I would have planned transportation a lot better before the day of the presentation. One thing I think I did really well was acquiring unusual materials. Our biggest challenge was finding a wheelchair that we didn't have to spend $1000 on, and somehow in one phone call I got us one for free. Overall I am very glad I got to spend a few weeks with a great group of people and work on such a fun project.