by Dan McWilliam, Team Lead for Hack the House.
STEMIA Junior High is proud to announce our design team for the Hack the House Challenge for the 2023 installment of Beakerhead in Calgary. The primary objective of this challenge is to design and construct a functional vehicle that showcases both creativity and sustainability.
Hack the House website: https://sites.google.com/beakerhead.com/hackthehouse/home
Our team consists of 5 grade 9 students: Naveen, Miran, Carter, Brayden, and Taylor.
The team of grade 9 students has chosen to tackle this challenge by utilizing solar power as their primary energy source to charge their vehicle. Moreover, they have decided to repurpose cordless drill batteries and drills to power their creation, providing a cost-effective and eco-friendly alternative to traditional vehicle batteries or fossil fuel motors.
Our design is inspired by a build we found in Make Magazine: https://makezine.com/projects/drill-kart/ . The author of the post, Gever Tulley, is the founder of Tinkering School as well as Brightworks School.
The design and build have started smoothly, but there will be some considerable problem solving coming up with how they decide to mount the axles to take the weight of a pilot. They will also need to build an internal frame to hold the drills steady on the inside of the bin.
We’re looking forward to more lunch hours and tinkering time on our yet to be named vehicle.
STEMIA Journal 