A'level Technology Pneumatics Project

[april1693]

My son is beginning the 2nd year of his A'level technology course and needs an idea for a project using a minimum of 3 double acting cylinders - there are no other limitations. He's run a few ideas past his teacher - eg rubbish compressor, automatic golf ball teeing system, but they've been done in previous years. Any suggestions? All help would be greatly appreciated!

[coccinelle]

Still waiting for that machine where you load in dirty washing and it comes out clean and ironed....
Also the pan of whatever you put on the stove and it can't burn as it cuts itself out....
Furniture where dust can't settle....
A self-clean bath, washbasin & sink....
Cor I could go on............................

3 Double acting cylinders ? that's way beyond me!!!

[sherrardk]

Have you considered googling it? It may come up to links to other schools websites where there might be examples of what other students have done. Or you could go to the exam board website and have a look at the full syllabus to see if it gives you any ideas.

[april1693]

Thanks for making me smile coccinelle - I want all of those too! Sherrardk we've googled with little success - some schools are very cagey about sharing ideas etc, and this particular board website only gives the requirements but unfortunately no real guidance.

[Hypognosis]

What are they being tested on: - creativity & design ability or is it just about construction skills?

I'm puzzled by "been done in previous years". How stern are they about this? Any actual risk of downmarking penalty if you act as if it was "advice" rather than "the rules" and went ahead with copying a project from a few years ago?

(afaic, downloading a design off the internet is pretty much the same and will probably not go unnoticed)

[april1693]

Hypo and Methyl I'll pass your queries on to him in the morning and get back to you ASAP, many thanks for your replies x

[april1693]

Hello again, In answer to your questions, he is being tested on both creativity and and design ability, it is a relatively small school ( 5 in his tech class, even less in previous years) so repeating/ improving on an idea previously used would be a bit dubious. Methyl the DACs are 150 - 200 millimetres and there is no computer control involved. Hope this helps x

[Hypognosis]

Hi April,

seems I guessed correctly, there. It appears we would be at the risk of ruining your son's creativity by (if I'm unkind about it) spoon-feeding him with suggestions.

I would not be surprised to hear it is part of the learning process to gain an understanding of just how difficult it is to create an idea from nothing or, rather, do it in an environment already rich in technological 'stuff' where the first 50 or 60 things you dream up all turn out to have been done before by someone else. It's analagous to being a musician and trying to create a new song whilst constantly checking to see that you're not plagiarising something from the past.

A week of him 'sleeping on it' might do the trick. If that doesn't work out, ask him if the teacher has got around to explain the concept of 'brainstorming' yet. It may be the idea of the course material is that they arrive at this technique for themselves. Learning to bounce ideas off other people is a big part of working as a team. Choosing which idea to run with is the easy part.

By the way, I fully admit to lacking in inspiration myself. I have zero ideas of what to do with double-acting cylinders.

Best of luck. Let us know how things turn out.