# Slot cars in school! Science project!



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Okay, has anyone ever seen one of these before?










Well, I teach middle school Reading, and on Friday during my free period, I wandered past the science lab to see several groups of kids doing a lab project. Each group had one of these fishing-reel looking gizmos, and a bunch of test wires with alligator clips, and a lightbulb or two, and a few other science-fair-electrical-circuit-project type items. I asked one group what the fishing reel gizmo was, and a kid showed me: He hooked the alligator clips to the lightbulb socket leads and cranked the handle and the bulb lit up. COOOOOOL! A hand generator! Wonder how much voltage it puts out... "Wait here one second," I said. I always have a few miscellaneous slot cars in my classroom. I came back with a Tjet and said, "Watch this..." I hooked the clips to the Tjet pickup shoes and cranked the handle. Voila, the wheels spun. Ooohs and aaaahs from the kids.

Then the one kid says, "Run it across the table!" I didn't think I could, because of the way the clips were hooked to the shoes, but he diddled with them for two seconds and I could get the car to scoot around the table on its rear wheels like a pet on a leash.

Long story short: The science teacher lady said her kids would get a kick out of running cars off these generators, so I borrowed one and brought it home and hooked it to some old LL track. I recently picked up a couple of LL sets with that useless hardwired terminal track, so with a little creative Dremeling and reconnecting, I had the lanes isolated. Now you can hook up one of these hand generators to each lane. One set of alligator clips goes to what used to be the power pack terminals, the other set goes to a pair of wires from under the track. I set up an oval--33 inch straights with lane-change tracks to keep the lane lengths even. You have to crank like mad to get a Tjet around, but a 440 or LL shoots around like nothing. Tomorrow, the kids are finishing their lesson on circuits, and I'm gonna set the track up for them so they can race the cars around using the hand generators. Should be fun... 

(Interesting side note: Inside these generators are just can motors with lots of gears. I hooked one to a track that already was hooked to power, and pulled the trigger on a controller, and the crank handle started spinning...)

--rick


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

That's cool Rick!
What's next?


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

I recall seeing an article about a slot car track that was powered by racers riding generator equipped stationary bicycles. Not a bad idea for us couch potatoes.


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## JordanZ870 (Nov 25, 2004)

What a beautiful story! I wonder how many kids you gave the slot car bug to?
Way to go, stepping up and teaching/sharing like that! (I had some cool teachers too when I was in school...but they didn't share slot cars. LOL)


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## coach61 (Sep 6, 2004)

Now thats very cool..

I have some old Tyco track, when I am school tomorrow I will check and see if we have any of these generators in the science lab. Taks is putting a lot of pressure on us to perform this year, and anything that gets the kids attention is always welcome. Thank you for sharing this idea with us.


Dave


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

So here's how it went:



















One creative kid set up this Corvette to run independently of the track:










to be continued...

--rick


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

And here's how I did it:



















Dunno if any of these guys are future slotheads, but at least they learned a little about electric current...

--rick


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

Rick,

Thats just so awesome man!!!!! :thumbsup:


Wes


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## donster (Dec 13, 2005)

Way to go! Looks like the kids are really into their experiment. You should transfer to science teacher next year instead of reading teacher. At least you'll get to play with cool toys!


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## micyou03 (Apr 8, 2003)

AfxToo said:


> I recall seeing an article about a slot car track that was powered by racers riding generator equipped stationary bicycles. Not a bad idea for us couch potatoes.


I could actually enjoy peddling my semi-recombinant stationary bike if it would make my slot cars go. Peddle fast down the straights and slow down for the turns. It would be just like doing the random program, but with incentive. Can you imagine running races like that? Slot car racing would become a sport. Maybe be it could even be a winter Olympic event.


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

Great for the kids, burns off more calories than pushing video game buttons.  rr


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

Rick, your my hero. not only playing slots with the kids, but getting paid for it too......way cool


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

So you're saying that running slot cars around a track with a hand generator is more exciting than the alternative pictured below:


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## micyou03 (Apr 8, 2003)

Rick, Great way to take advantage of an opportunity to introduce slot cars to kids. Great work/play.


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## T-jetjim (Sep 12, 2005)

Great idea Rick! It would be fun to watch the kids cranking the generators like mad to win.
Jim


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

T-jetjim said:


> Great idea Rick! It would be fun to watch the kids cranking the generators like mad to win.
> Jim


Hey, lots of them cranked like mad and launched the cars right off the table. It actually takes a little skill to keep it at high speed without overdoing it...

--rick


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## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

*Pedal Power!*

I like AFXtoo's comments. Now THAT would be a cool team race. One guy pedals a stationary bike with a generator to generate power to the lane and the other team driver drives the car with the controller at the track. Then they switch between heats. Can you imagine a row of stationary bikes behind the slot car track with a bunch of middle aged men sweating away trying to get the win for their team?  

Maybe you'd need a 3 man team so one can rest between heats.  :wave:


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## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

Could be a great father/son event too.... "Go dad go! Pedal faster!.." :thumbsup:


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