Stop Freewheeling Using Friction!
Wheelchair ramps help people with disabilities access all buildings and structures with stairs.Copyright 2019 Chongkian, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nurul_Muttaqin_Mosque_-_Wheelchair_Ramp.jpg
In this maker challenge, students use the engineering design process to design a covering for a portable wheelchair ramp for their school. The design must be easy to use, and allows people to move up the ramp easily and go down slowly. Students have a $20 budget to use for materials. Students conduct research on different materials to use that reduce or increase friction, evaluate proposed solutions that best meets the above requirements, build and test prototypes, revise and improve their designs, and report their findings to the rest of the class.