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Vol. 38, No. 18 |
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5-16-2007 XTreme engineering"Tricking out" pogos adds to learning experience
The presence of pogo sticks in university hallways is the handiwork of Kimberly Clavin, an instructional development specialist with the College of Engineering. “I’ve always tried to integrate toys and fun into the mechanical engineering environment,” she says. “And so, when I saw these extreme pogos at the XGames I got really excited. Not only are they fun, they’re also very mechanical.” And then she adds, smiling, “I had a pogo as a kid and always wanted another one.” Her wish came true last fall, when she convinced leading pogo manufacturer Flybar to donate some pogo sticks to be used for research in the mechanical engineering program. The models provided aren’t cheap — they run between $200 and $400 — and bear little resemblance to the spindly, spring-based pogo sticks many of us remember from our childhoods. The Flybar 800 and its larger cousin, the Flybar 1200, can bounce riders up to 5 feet in the air. They operate on elastic band thrusters, a ring of rubber tubing that circles the sliding shaft and provides lift when compressed. There are three other types available on the market: Classic spring, which coils when compressed; leaf spring (a flexing bow that bends and straightens); and pneumatic, which uses compressed air to propel riders high into the air. “The pneumatic pogos seem to give you the highest heights; there’s a video showing a guy jumping up on 12-foot walls with no problem whatsoever,” Clavin says. “But there are advantages and disadvantages to each pogo design — bounce height, safety, cost and weight are all important.”
Pogos have made a bit of a comeback in recent years, complete with their own arsenal of tricks — “leapfrogging,” for instance, is where a rider hops from one pogo stick to another — and their own annual sporting event, Pogopalooza. Pogo clubs are springing up at universities across the country, including Ohio State. Clavin was brimming with ideas on how to improve or “trick out” pogo sticks, so she decided to see about getting pogo design integrated into mechanical engineering classes. To do this, she teamed up with Tony Luscher, an associate professor of mechanical engineering who is a self-avowed daredevil. “He saw me in the hallway on a pogo stick and he couldn’t help himself,” recalls Clavin, who is temporarily relieved of her hopping duties because she is five months pregnant. “Anything crazy, I’m involved in,” Luscher adds. Even so, the first order of business with the donated pogos was anything but crazy. Students did research on the life span of the rubber thrusters inside the pogo sticks to determine how long they would last in conditions such as the trunk of a jumper’s car. With the results, they were able to better understand how different curing techniques could greatly extend the life of the material. In winter quarter, however, the focus became decidedly more playful as students were turned loose and told to “trick their pogos.” “They don’t worry so much about the insides; it’s more about making the pogo do cool stuff,” Clavin explains. Examples of “cool stuff” include attaching a lightbar to the outside of a pogo stick that registers the height of a bounce by lighting up. One tricked-out pogo can be converted into a scooter, while another is being modified to make it collapsible and therefore easier to carry. This quarter, one student team is installing a Nerf dart gun into the body of the pogo stick that can be fired with attachments to the handlebars. One project that didn’t make it past the drawing board was the iPod pogo, which would basically provide a power amp to plug a music player into for on-the-bounce listening. While the projects are fun and engaging, Luscher says, they also provide experience students need to succeed in their post-college careers. “We teach the students math, science and calculations, and we want to give them the opportunity to apply that to something they develop and design themselves,” he says. “We want them to learn critical thinking and decision making skills, because they’re going to need them out in the real world.” Clavin, who worked in industry before going into academia, agrees that the application of skills is an invaluable component of a solid engineering education. “When I was an undergraduate, I didn’t build a single prototype,” she recalls. “At Ohio State, students have lots of opportunities to get real hands-on mechanical engineering skills, which is something a lot of schools don’t have.”
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If you see a student bouncing down the halls of Scott Lab on a pogo stick, don’t assume he’s goofing around. He might be doing research. 