Mark's Billy Carts and eLearning website [Eleven activities for the units, with ICT skills needed, activities, work samples and assessment rubrics]
Learning Objects
• Design Briefs: Shoes 4 U
• Testing and Evaluating Wheels: Skateboard Race
• Testing Tyres: Wild Ride: Get a Grip
• Testing Wheels: Wild Ride: On a Roll
• Testing Gears: Wild Ride: In Top Gear
• Planning Tactics: Wild Ride: Race Day
Useful Links for Students
Bunnings Hardware
This site has diagrams and some handy tips. How to build a billycart (PDF 192KB) [Right Click with Mouse or Control Click with a Mac TrackPad to download]
Excellent for developing understanding, students can add to this model to create their own design. It also includes brakes and steering and has a shopping list.
A Billy cart website http://www.billycart.com.au/billycarthome.html
National Association of Forest Industries Presenting Harry and Sal's Billy-cart: http://www.nafi.com.au/timbertips/billy-cart.html
Has a very good guide for building the cart and details resources needed and techniques for making it.
Instructions on building a Billy-cart protoype http://users.bigpond.net.au/mechtoys/billycart.html
An explicit guide detailing how to make one. This could be used to begin planning and modifying to meet the design specifications and design brief.
Information on steering for billycarts http://nztrolleyderby.netfirms.com/construction/butterlfysteering.html
This site is useful for critiquing safety features of billycarts as it includes photos.
Just for fun ABC.net: Build and race - learning object/game http://www.abc.net.au/rollercoaster/dash/arena/games/billycart.htm
Useful Links for Teachers
Unit on Moving Toys: Design Briefs
http://www.childrensengineering.org/technology/ & http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Instruction/CTE/te/K-5/Engineering/