STUDENT PEDAL POWER CHALLENGE
Lesson 1
SUMMARY
Students get a chance to ride a pedal power bicycle generator and see how many Watts, Volts, Amps they can put out using WattsVIEWTM software.
© 2009 Pedal Power Generator LLC - All rights reserved
OVERVIEW
Students line up an patiently wait their turn to get on the pedal power generator to see how many Watts they are able to put out. As shown below, you can see that using a projector with WattsVIEWTM power monitor software shows students a real time measurement graphical chart with Watts as the vertical axis.
You will see the same kids coming up over and over again to try and make the floating ball flow higher than they got it to float before. you can make you own floating ball display for under $20.00.
Materials Needed
A folding table was used to hold a laptop running the WattsVIEWTM power monitoring software, and a projector which was putting the image of the Watts Graph onto a large screen for all to observe during each student's turn.
Computer
WattsVIEW power monitoring
Projector and screen (most educators have access to this already)
Floating ball display or Light Comparison Box.
Instruction
Setup the Belt Drive bicycle generator with a bicycle provided by you and using instructions shown here.
Setup your floating ball or Light Comparison Box
Setup your computer with WattsVIEW
Have the students or adults line up to try and see how much energy they can put out. Explain that when they are powering up a LED light bulb, they will feel that it is very easy to pedal. Or if you are using a floating ball display, that the higher you make the ball float in the air, the more power you are putting out, and the graph will reflect the amount of work they are doing.