4L and 4/3N save Rapunzel

Dear Bloggers,

4L and 4/3N have been very busy saving Rapunzel from her tower.

About 6 weeks ago a paper plane came flying mysteriously into our room. This is what it said.

Hello I am your friend Rapunzel. Do you remember me? I am the girl with long flowing golden hair who you rescued from the tower at the beginning of this term. I have some devastating news. After you kindly saved me I did not live happily ever after…alas the witch caught me again and put me back into the tower. Now she watches me even more closely! Recently she planted poisonous bushes at the base of the tower which cause instant death if you touch them. These make it even more difficult for me to escape. Perhaps you do not know this but I can see your Lego Robotics classroom at Gordon East Public School from my window. My heart is pounding with excitement because I see you have built and programmed cranes to move heavy loads. I am not that heavy and I would rather think of myself as a gorgeous Princess rather than a ‘load’ but please can you help me escape again. I thought Cranes would be good for my rescue as they use pulleys, levers, gears, motors and sensors. Last time some of you saved me with catapults and flinging lever arms. Please don’t think me ungrateful but they were quite scary and did mess up my hair. I did enjoy escaping with your designs that stopped to let me in like a Ferris wheel loading passengers. I was quite terrified climbing down the stairs and ladders that some of you kindly made for me…as navigating them in high heels was quite perilous. A lovely safe well controlled crane, however, is perfect.

Here is what you must do? (Design and challenge brief)

Make a model of my tower so that you can practise rescuing me. My tower is cylinder shaped and my window is 20cm from the ground. I do need a floor to stand on. Please only
spend time decorating my tower once you have finished all the other work.
Design and make a comfortable and safe seat that I can fit in and attach this securely to the lifting hook on the crane.
Program your crane to wind the hook and my chair up to my window and stop for 3 seconds so I can get in. Please control this using at least one sensor or keyboard commands as I cannot jump onto a moving seat.
Use your handle on the crane to rotate the crane 180degrees so when I land I will be as far away from the castle as possible and avoid the treacherous poisonous bushes.
Lower me slowly (I get motion sick) onto the ground and control this so the crane stops when I touch down. Please do not smash me into the ground.
Return the crane to its original position so the Witch is not suspicious.
Fast rescuers please add/program: appropriate sounds, backgrounds including relevant messages, a timer to measure how long the rescue takes and motion and tilt sensors.Please practice my rescue.
Practise makes perfect you know. Your rescue attempt may not work the first few times. Think of this as a challenge and ask yourself why and what you can do to make it better. Continue this process of design, make, appraise until you have my perfect rescue.
Most of all never give up….when the going gets tough the tough get going!!!
Super-fast workers

Please write a letter to the witch and pretend to be her beloved old mother who is very sick. Coax the witch to go and visit her so she is out of the way during the rescue. Her mum’s name is Mrs Martha and the witch will need lots of convincing to leave me so your letter must be very persuasive! The witch also likes very neat and well set out letters.

Please decorate my castle and the surrounding fields. It may be beautiful with pretty turrets, flags, flowers and lovely colours or a castle of horrors with thorny bushes growing up the sides and dark colours. Don’t forget the poisonous plants.
Once you are ready carry out my rescue……I can hardly wait.
Please think about and reflect on my rescue……you never know the witch might catch me again and you will have to repeat this exercise. Consider what was good and bad about my rescue? What problems did you have and how did you overcome them? How could you improve on my rescue next time? Hopefully there will not be a next time……..but you never know.

Remember I can see you and I need you to be trying your best at all times.

Thank you so much .

Rapunzel

You will be very pleased to know that our talented students allowed Rapunzel to escape and she is now off with her Prince living happily ever after.

Here are some photos of the students in action.