Bike Drive at the 21st Annual Energy Fair
Working Bikes will have a booth and collect bikes at the MREA's 21st Annual Energy Fair in Amherst, WI ...
We have attended the fair for the last four years where we have met Eagle Scout, University, Community College representatives as well as regular people and we have established lasting friendships.
This year we have a double sized booth. We will unveil for the first time several anticipated innovations in the realm of "bike machines".
We will also advance the Working Bikes Co-op mission of recycling, cycling and international development.
Contact: Lee.
WBC coordinator: Lee 312 371 4286.
ABSTRACT
A bike-powered machine offers physical kinesthetic learning
and play. This is equivalent to past generation's playing with
Erector Sets to building Heathkits [1], [2]. The excitement of
riding a bike machine offers a different path to learning that
turns a short-term memory into a long-term memory. Bike
machines provide energy education to the public in order for
them to understand power generation which engineers
frequently take for granted. People learn to correlate effort
exerted with energy produced. The bike-powered machine
group, a committee of Working Bikes Cooperative, Chicago,
IL, creates bike-powered machines for schools, nature centers,
museums and environmental science centers [3]. The eyecatching
bike-powered machines are shown at street fairs,
green festivals, energy fairs and educational institutions.
Index Terms: informal K-12 education, Engineering outreach,
Education, Educational technology, Continuing education,
Electrical engineering education, Engineering education,
Power engineering education
EDUCATIONAL METHODOLOGY
Kinesthetic learning is a big part of the educational efforts of
Working Bikes. Cognitive challenges for special education
students and many adults prevent them from making a
mathematical interpretation of how energy works. Riding a
bike machine that turns on an appliance provides them with a
direct intuitive understanding of the energy equation [4].
A homebrewed energy bike, or bike machine, is made from
salvaged materials. This has a two-fold impact of keeping
materials of out landfills and making part costs low for
educators. The bicycle has the rear wheel stabilized so that the
bike is stationary with a generator mechanically connected to
the rear wheel [5]. The bike can demonstrate fundamental
concepts of electricity [6]. Users take active roles in pedaling
the bike to produce electricity to demonstrate how much effort
needs to be expended to power commonly used appliances.
Since the bike has potentially dangerous components, all
participants are made aware of the danger and are supervised
closely.
A load switch is used (an element of surprise) for a bike
machine that is made from a household electrical wall switch
[7]. This changes the load from an 11-watt fluorescent bulb to
an equivalent 60-watt incandescent bulb. This is within the
range of most participants' biking abilities. They soon realize
how much extra energy is needed to go from 11 watts to 60
watts.
Using more than one learning mode reinforces comprehension
for all students [8]. Computer technology manufacturers
recognize that roughly 40 percent of pre-college students are
physical (bodily-kinesthetic ) learners and want hands-on
experience or active physical involvement. For example, the
touch screen smart phone size computers utilize kinesthetic
learning to aid in education [9].
Information on past and upcoming bike-powered machine
events can be viewed on the Working Bikes Cooperative
website [3].
REFERENCES
[1] Reflections May 1998 in IEEE Spectrum
http://www.argreenh ouse.com/ papers/rlucky/ spectrum/ ee.shtml Electrical
Engineering -- A Diminishing Role?
[2] Stuart Brown, Christopher Vaughan, Play: How It Shapes the Brain,
Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, Publisher: Penguin Group,
March 2009
[3] Working Bikes Cooperative http://workingbikes .org
[4] F. Joseph Clark special education teacher Northside Learning Center,
http://www.nlc. cps.k12.il. us/index. html
[5] Bike Machines http://workingbikes .org/bikemachine s
[6] The Energy Bike Guide provides instructions for assembling the Energy
Bike and an extensive curriculum for using the Energy Bike to explore
concepts of electricity. http://www.need. org/needpdf/ EnergyBike2005. pdf
[7] Paolo A. G. Sivilotti and Scott M. Pike. "The suitability of kinesthetic
learning activities for teaching distributed algorithms" In Proceedings of the
38th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pages
362–366, Covington, Kentucky, March 2007. ACM Press
[8] Cathy Collins Block, Sheri R. Parris, Cinnamon S. Whiteley. The Reading
Teacher, 61(6), pp. 460–470 © 2008 International Reading Association page
460 DOI:10.1598/ RT.61.6.3 ISSN: 0034-0561 print / 1936-2714 online
[9] Shelley Pasnik "iPod in Education: The Potential for Teaching and
Learning Winter 2007 One in a series of iPod in Education white papers, 2007
Apple Inc.
Bike Machine Energy Education
Sanford Jay Rotter, Senior Member, IEEE, James Lee Ravenscroft, Raul Gonzalez
