The bicycle project approach-a vehicle to relevancy and motivation

The author´s pedagogical experience with the bicycle project approach at the University of Illinois where open-ended projects are used to supplement lecture mode course material is presented. The focus is on the stable single track trailer (SSTT) design challenge. The SSTT design challenge was to achieve a towed riderless bicycle which will follow, steer, and balance of its own accord behind a lead bicycle. Design constraints included using a tow linkage that would not transmit a torque. The project design approach permitted students to come to grips with an unstructured problem, one for which the answer was not readily available at the back of the text. Problem clarification, synthesis, visualization of spatial mechanisms, stability of mechanisms, report writing, success, and failure were all inherent in the design challenge