Building a Steam Trike From Recycled Parts
The Big Boy 4014 steam locomotive can certainly teach students a lot, but students need to get involved in active, hands-on projects that teach them new skills while they learn about that technology and a professor down in Brazil, built a really neat project to show how it’s done.
I wrote about this professor several years ago on another site:
If you have a pile of old motorcycle parts, some tubing, an old steel drum, the seat from a junk car, you might think it’s time to get it all hauled away, so you can get serious about building your next project, right? But wait, why not upcycle this junk and turn it into parts? Professor Pardal in Brazil did exactly that, he looked at all of this and saw a steam powered trike hiding in plain sight, so he built one.
Making ideas real
Think about that. He came up with an idea, looked around to see what he had available and built something from it. Students need to see that process in action and realize they can do that, too. And, while they’re doing that, they can learn a lot about technology and gain some hands-on skills. It’s a winner all around.
Active learning
With so much attention on AI and what computers can do, why not spend some time finding out what humans can do? Students especially, but everyone else, too, let’s generate more ideas and take maximum advantage of what we see all around us to stimulate our thinking. Steam locomotives rolling through town are just one example, let’s see what else we can do.
Be sure to watch the video below to see this steam trike in action. (use the video settings to turn on English captions or watch it on YouTube)