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Part of St. Edmund's
Catholic School

Zoom Machines

Your challenge

To design and build a moving vehicle that can travel 4 metres in the shortest time.

The rules

• You will be provided with a box of junk per team.

• You may only use the materials provided and are not allowed to share materials with other teams.

• Any unused materials should be saved in case repairs are needed.

• You will be given time to design, build and test your vehicle. Once the time is up all vehicles will be impounded and no further changes will be allowed.

• Your vehicle MUST be powered by the energy stored in rubber bands.

• You may not give your vehicle “a helping hand” or use any other energy source.

Time trial rules

Each teams will be allowed 5 minutes to power up their vehicle.

Each team will be allowed two trials, with 10 minutes allowed between the trials to power up and make any repairs. NO CHANGES ARE ALLOWED

The best time out of the two trials will be the final result. BUT if the vehicle fails to make it to the finish line or goes out of the track area no time will be recorded for that trial

In the case of a tie:  The lightest vehicle will be declared the winner.

You will be provided with:

• 6 CD’s

• 1 roll masking tape

• 2 Dowel Rods

• 10 index cards 

• 4 Pencils 

• 5 pieces of paper 

• 10 Straws 

• 10 pipe cleaners 

• 6 Cotton Reels 

• Glue 

• 6 Film canisters 

• 10 Rubber bands 

• 4 Plastic butter containers 

• 2 small milk cartons

Good Luck!

This project is based on the Junkyard Wars "Zoom Machines" from DiscoverySchool

For some hints and tips about making rubber band vehicles, click here 

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