Abstract: Human history is punctuated by the prolific rise and inevitable collapse of civilization after civilization. In this project, students researched historical civilizations and distilled a common class theory for the cycle of civilization. Based on this common theory, and because this project is being built for the new High Tech High Elementary, students then created an age-appropriate allegory to represent their social theory. This allegory adorns each side of a 5′ x 5′ x 5′ cubic structure, each side representing a stage of the social theory, and is bordered by elements of student research, engineering process, and draft artwork. This cubic structure is then driven rotationally by a complex horological system based on an esoteric clock escapement patent from the 1880’s and an equally esoteric continuous winding mechanism meant for clock towers. The entire mechanism is weight driven and hand wound by an old cast-iron valve assembly
Fun Facts
- Throughout this project, our classroom collaborated with a 4th grade class from Explorer Elementary and a 5th grade class from HTe.
- It takes nearly 3 hours to setup the cube at an exhibition. See a clip of assembly by clicking here.
- Students mathematically modeled the entire kinetic chain through this math integration.
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- Overall System Diagram
- Original Project Pitch
- Draft Rendering
- Construction Drawings (for Contractor)
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