VEX Car Project Lead The Way Curriculum

Throughout my years in high school, I have been involved in multiple engineering classes following the Project Lead The Way (PLTW) curriculum. These classes have continuously challenged me with a variety of problem solving projects from designing a puzzle cube to constructing a ping pong launcher. Through the difficulties and adversity of these projects I have learned how to deal with and solve challenging circumstances. The most interesting of these projects has been a VEX vehicle design project, a month-long endeavor completed in my junior year. To start, VEX is a brand of robotics designed for students to learn the basics of robotic functions and programming. In this project, the assignment was to construct an autonomous and driver-controlled robot that is able to perform a specific rescue operation. On the first day, we partnered up in pairs of two and began by reviewing constraints and the rubric for the project, as well as creating a planner that mapped out what part of the design process we would be working on each day. The project planner is a vital part of any engineering project as it helps me stay organized and is a

In this step, engineers research the topic and brainstorm ways to solve the problem at hand. The interesting part about generating concepts is that the vast majority of the ideas that we generated do not end up being a part of the final design. The reason for this is that we were taught to come up with as many ideas as possible while brainstorming, no matter how outrageous they seem. Even the most outlandish ideas can have a brilliant solution within. For example, we originally tried to use tank treads as the form of locomotion for our robot, so that it could climb over an obstacle. However, the treads did not work as they kept slipping, but it turns out that the wheels being used with the treads had the perfect grip to get over the