Operation Save Mario
Event Location: Orange County STEM Saturday
Competition: Energy Transfer Machine
School: Bay Meadows Elementary
Team Name: Bay Meadows ETs
Project Name: Operation Save Mario
Team Size: 3
The 2023 energy transfer group has 3 members. Noah (grade 4), John (grade 5) and Adam (grade 4).
Our energy transfer machine will light a light and save Mario from the sharks. There are many different energy transfers in our machine. Our machine begins with a marble run. It uses gravity to take the marble down the track. The marble goes down some gears and hits a car. the car rolls down the ramp and hits a wooden block that hits a tennis ball. The tennis ball rolls and knocks down the first domino. The dominoes fall and takes a wedge out that was holding the ambulance. The ambulance rolls down a ramp and hits a baseball that is tied to a bat. The baseball falls and pulls down a baseball bat. The baseball bat is tied to two dominoes that are holding up a ramp. The ramp falls and sends a tennis ball down the ramp that hits a pencil that rotates and hits a bouncy ball. The ball goes down another ramp and hits the base of a marble run. The bump causes the battery to fall and the marble to roll. The Marble hits the mousetrap. The mousetrap snaps and pulls the wedge away from the basket. The basket is on a pulley and as the basket falls the box comes up. The box triggers the light. The light uses two AA batteries this is how we used the power requirement. The light turns on and the light energy transfers to the solar panel on Mario. Mario then wiggles away from the shark. This is what should happen at the one minute mark.
There were some challenges getting this to work.
1. The bat bumping the table would send the marble early. It would set off the mousetrap and skip half the run.
– We fixed this by adding a foam raft. It stopped it from bumping the table to hard.
2. Sometimes the baseball would not fall down.
– we placed it carefully and tested it.
3. The marbles would not go down the gears or bounce on the floor.
– We added lids to the gears
Here are a few pictures of the brain storming and build process.
