Awareness Speedway Slot Car Club, Inc. is pleased to finally to be able to post more detailed information about our one of kind special educational classes, including our one of a kind safety program that is specifically designed for intellectually disabled and special needs adults and children.
Awareness Speedway Slot Car Club, Inc.
Educational Programs
Our educational programs were developed with the input from Pa licensed special needs therapists and parents as how to use slot cars and our club as teaching tools that can be used in your every day activities. Our educational programs may seem very simple to the non special needs person but for an intellectually challenged, special needs adults or children it may be a very big challenge. ASSCC has different levels of challenging classes for low level to highly functioning adults and children.
Our educational program is called:
Trackside ED
Trackside Ed is an educational program geared for intellectually disabled Special needs children and adults.
Objective:
We will incorporate these techniques to educate and stimulate our special friends in many areas of their daily life to show how our slot cars relate to every- day life. Our special friends will learn different aspects, of how and why, our cars stay in and fall off the track by having informational classes before they run our cars on the track.
We are going to have two different levels of education classes for our special friends, a basic class and an intermediate to advanced class. These classes are for our higher functioning special friends. The classes will use various common items, from the house, like marbles, common real world construction equipment, to common household items, toys, and die cast vehicles to educate our special friends by using visual and verbal aids with humor and fun.
Example: will use marbles, to show how gravity and velocity work in a manner that they will understand, and be able to relate to our cars. We will build upon this, to help them, progress on the track to faster cars.
We have our one of a kind safety classes, for our special friends.
These chats will be around 15 – 20 minutes long, special needs adults and children are usually curious, about construction, yard equipment, and race cars that are used in our community and at area race tracks.
This will provide an educational experience, added value of safety, so our special friends will recognize simple solutions to every day situations that we take for granted.
Trackside Ed
Module: Colors
#1- Colors #1
#2- Colors #2
#3- Colors #3
#4- Colors #4
Module: Measuring Class
#1 Measuring #1
#2 Measuring #2
Module: Shapes
#1- Shapes #1
#2- Shapes #2
#3- Advanced Shapes #1
Module: Friction
#1- Friction
Module: Painting
#1- Paint Colors Class #1
Module: Faster Car Purchase
#1- Faster Car purchase program
Module: Slot Cars and how they relate to everyday living
#1- History
#2- Electricity types
#3- How is A/C & D/C current produced
#4- How is A/C & D/c current distributed
#5- How is A/C & D/c Current used.
Module: Faster Car
#1- Faster Car
#2- Change Tire Sizes
#3- Gears 48 pitch, 1/8” axle, 9 tooth pinion, same body
#4- Gears 64 pitch, 1/8” axle, 9 tooth pinion, same body
#5- Gear 64 pitch, axle switch from 1/8” to 3/32” axle. same body
#6- Gears 64 pitch, 3/32” axle 9-10 tooth pinion, same body
#7- Change body with different styles and down force
#8- Blueprinting Chassis and car parts
#9- Different types of motors
#10- Purchase new car
If class description is in green class is not created. Black is completed.
Our Safety program
Our Safety program is a tool to educate and present information to help our intellectually disabled and special needs adults and children with learning about every day items up to heavy machinery. Our programs gives basic information on how the item works, were the safe and danger areas are, how to remain safe.
Our safety program is called:
Trackside Chat
Trackside chat is a safety program geared for intellectually disabled Special needs children and adults.
Objective:
Our program will use common real world construction equipment, to common household items, Toys, and die cast vehicles to educate our special friends on safety by using visual and verbal aids with humor and fun.
Exercise:
Display real equipment and die cast vehicles with miniature plastic people to explain and show all moving parts of how equipment moves and acts, when being used.
Other dangerous points including blind spots, by using colored layout sheets in three colors. Red for danger, Yellow for caution, Green for safe zone.
We will incorporate these techniques to educate and stimulate our special friends in many areas of their daily life to show how our slot cars, and die cast vehicles relate to every day life.
These chats will be around 15 – 20 minutes long Special needs adults and children are usually curious about construction/ yard equipment used in our community and at race tracks.
This will provide an educational experience, so our special friends will recognize simple solutions to every day situations that we take for granted.
Our three goals for the future:
1. To be able to purchase more die cast models and broken equipment, so we can use them as props for our safety program.
2. We would like to be able to have a room just for our safety program besides our education facilities and track areas.
3. To be able to have tours of places that have the equipment listed in our safety program to be able to get up close and personal in a safe and discreet setting.
Trackside Chat
Module: Home Yard Equipment
#1- Blowers
#2- Weed Eaters
#3- Edger’s
#4- Lawn Tractors
#4- Riding Lawn Mower
#5- Push Mowers
#6- Zero Turn Mowers
#7- Hedge Trimmers
#8- Small Snow Blowers
#9- Small Sprayers
#10- Small Snow Plow
Module: Construction/Quarry/Heavy Equipment
#1- Quarry Dump truck
#2- Dump Truck
#3- Dozer
#4- Pay Loader
#5- Grader
#6- Skid Loader (Bobcat)
#7- Track Hoe
#8- Back Hoe
#9- Large Rollers
#10- Small Rollers
#11- Plate Tamper
#12- Wacker
#13- Water Truck
#14- Soil Compactor
#15- Articulated Dump Truck
Module: Construction/Quarry/Heavy Equipment Continued
#16- Loggers
#17- Snow Blowers
#18- Snow Plows
#19- Track Loader
#20- Utility Loader
Module: General/Farm Use Equipment
#1- Small Spreader
#2- Hydro Seed Truck
#3- Small Spreader
Module: Heavy Lifting Equipment
#1- Gantry Crane
#2- Bridge Crane
#3- Helicopter Crane
#4- Mobile Crane
#5- Barge/Boat Crane
#6- Track Crane
#7- Tower Crane
Module: Transportation Equipment
#1- Propane Truck
#2- Propane Tankers
#3- Large Spreader
#4- Large Sprayers
#5- Fuel Truck
#6- Fuel Tankers
Module: Farm Equipment
Module: Household Items
If class description is in green class is not created. Black is completed.
ASSCC has an incentive program to help our special friends remember what we have discussed and instructed them it’s called:
Trackside Knowledge Challenge
Trackside knowledge challenge is an educational safety program geared for intellectually disabled and special needs children and adults to challenge previously given trackside chats or classes. Our program will be used when our special friends are racing on our track. These Knowledge Challenges will be around 5 – 10 minutes long.
We will shut off the track once or twice an hour and ask what time is it____?
Answer is:
Its Knowledge challenge time.
Objective:
We then will ask one or two questions, in an orderly fashion, to all of our participants that are racing our track.
This will help reinforce a trackside educational class or recognize dangers from a trackside chat and learn how to stay safe and away from those dangerous situations. We will give all participants 3 flash cards with the letter A, B, C on them. We will ask our question and give three answers (A, B, C). There will only be one correct answer, associated with each question with corresponding letter. The correct flash card answer must be displayed and letter must be in correct position. (Letters are backwards from front to back, of flash cards), to receive the three points for a correct answer.
The correct flash card answer must be displayed and letter must be in correct position. (Letters are backwards from front to back, of flash cards), to receive the three points for a correct answer.
We are going to start out by issuing everyone 1 point for participating and 3 points for a correct answer. We will keep a count of the points and when the participant reaches 35 points, they will be issued a certificate for 1 hour of free track time.
Future Goals:
1. Add Ski Ball machines to our educational and safety programs.
2 .Have a point total that equals a token to use in the ski ball machines to collect tickets.
3. Expand this program to include ski ball machine tickets. To be converted to vouchers after a ticket total is achieved that equals, 1 hr track time, and the cost of a new car. This will add to the excitement of earning prizes and receiving fun, based on learning and safety classes. Vouchers will be for our special friend’s members only, when this program is instituted.
Below are examples of an ED class and Chat class.
Matching Colors Class (Part I)
Matching colors is very important on Awareness speedways track so you don't crash and damage your car, or the track.
Objectives:
This class will challenge their reasoning skills and their situational awareness skills of their surroundings so no damage will occur to the cars /track or controllers. This class will be a very fun way of learning.
There are eight (8) colors that Awareness Speedway Slot Car Club uses that are very important:
There are 8 X's on the floor each of you can take turns standing on.
With the 8 X's on the floor – there is a matching color stand that is right in front of you.
The matching color stand relates to the color on the slot car track lane that your car uses.
Each time you move to a different color X – you will be on a different color and you will be on a different part of the track.
Here are the colors of our track in order from top to bottom:
Red
White
Green
Orange
Blue
Yellow
Purple
Black
Exercise:
When standing on the Red X – can you point to where the red slot on the track is located?
When standing on the White X – can you point to where the white slot is located on the track?
When standing on the Green X – can you point to where the green slot is located on the track?
(Continue with the rest of the colors)
This will insure that the cars are controlled and not running full speed into the wall causing a crash.
This assures that our special friends will be on the correct color with the correct colored lane and correct colored car.
Slot Car History
Slot cars are usually models of actual automobiles, though some have bodies purpose-designed for miniature racing. Most enthusiasts use commercially available slot cars (often modified for better performance); others motorize static models, and some "scratch-build," creating their own mechanisms and bodies from basic parts and materials.
Drivers generally use a hand-held controller to regulate a low-voltage electric motor hidden within the car. Traditionally, each car runs on a separate lane with its own guide-slot (though recently developed digital technology can allow cars to share and change lanes). The challenge, in racing slot cars comes in taking curves and other obstacles as fast as possible without causing the car to lose its grip and spin sideways, or to 'deslot', leaving the track, altogether.
Some enthusiasts, much as in model rail roading build elaborate tracks, sculpted to have the appearance of a real-life racecourse, including miniature buildings, trees and people. Hobbyists whose main goal is competition often prefer a track unobstructed by scenery. Model motorcycles, trucks and other vehicles that use the guide-slot system are generally included under the loose classification of "slot car." The first commercial slot cars were made by Lionel (USA) and appeared in their catalogues from 1912 drawing power from a toy train rail sunk in a trough or wide slot between the rails. They were surprisingly similar to modern slot cars, but independent speed control was available only as an optional extra. Production was discontinued after 1915.
Sporadically over the next forty years, several other electrically powered commercial products came and went. Although a patent was registered as far back as March 1936 for a slot car until the late 1950s, nearly all powered toy vehicles were guided by raised rails, either at the wheels (railroad-style), at the lane center, or edge. By the late 1930s, serious craftsmen/hobbyists were racing relatively large (1:16 - 1:18 scale) model cars powered by small internal combustion engine originally with spark-ignition, later with glow plug engines. For guidance, the cars were clamped to a single center rail, or tethered from the center of a circular track, then they were started and let go for timed runs. There was no driver control of either the speed or steering, so "gas car" racing was largely a mechanic's hobby. In the 1940s hobbyists in Britain began to experiment with controllable electric cars using hand built motors and in the 1950s using the small model train motors that had become available. In 1954, the Southport Model Engineering Society in the U.K. was challenged by a patent-holder for using rail-guided gas-car exhibitions to raise funds, so, as a replacement; the members constructed an electric racecourse, a groundbreaking 6-lane layout nearly 60 feet long, for 1:32 rail-guided cars, which are widely considered to be the progenitor of electric rail- and slot-racing.
In 1955-56, several clubs in the U.K. and U.S., inspired by the Southport layout were also racing electric cars guided by center rails, and soon after, by slots in the track surface. The term "slot car" was coined to differentiate these from the earlier "rail cars", as the member-built club layouts proliferated, the relative advantages of rail and slot were debated for several years, but the obtrusive appearance of the rails and their blocking of the car's rear wheels when sliding through corners was powerful disadvantages. New clubs increasingly chose the slot system. By 1963, even the pioneer rail-racing clubs had begun to switch to slots.
There are three common slot car scales (sizes): 1:24 scale, 1:32 scale, and so-called HO size (1:87 to 1:64 scale). - 1:24 scale cars are built so that one unit of length (such as an inch or millimeter) on the model equals 24 units on the actual car. 1:24 cars require a course so large as to be impractical for many home enthusiasts, so most serious 1:24 racing is done at commercial or club tracks. 1:32 scale cars are smaller and more suited to home-sized race courses but they are also widely raced on commercial tracks, in hobby shops or in clubs. This scale is the most popular in Europe, and is equivalent to the old #1 gauge (or "standard size") of toy trains.
HO-sized cars vary in scale. Because they were marketed as model railroad accessories, the original small slot cars of the early 1960s roughly approximated either American and European HO scale 1:87) or British OO scale 1:76. As racing in this size evolved, the cars were enlarged to take more powerful motors, and today they are closer to 1/64 in scale; but they still run on track of approximately the same width, and are generically referred to as HO slot cars.
Although there is HO racing on commercial and shop-tracks, probably most HO racing occurs on home racetracks.
In addition to the major scales, slot cars have been commercially produced in 1/48 and 1/43 scale corresponding to O scale model trains. 1:48 cars were promoted briefly in the 1960s, and 1:43 slot car sets are generally marketed today (2007) as children's toys.
Objectives:
To show how slot cars/ motors relate to our daily living.
Exercise:
Look around your house and you will find that it is filled with electric motors. Here's an interesting experiment for you to do: Walk through your house and check your car, count all the motors you find. List the items and bring back to the track, the next time you come to visit.
Starting in the kitchen, there are motors in:
___________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
(Pictures are our own or taken from the web. We take no credit for pictures taken from the web just being used as a visual reference.)
Cheat Sheet to find electric motors:
The fan over the stove and in the microwave
The dispose-all under the sink
The blender
The can opener
The refrigerator- Two or three in fact: one for the compressor, one for the fan inside the refrigerator, as well as one in the icemaker.
The mixer
Probably even the dial clock on the oven/stove
In the laundry room, there is an electric motor in:
The washer
The dryer
The cordless Screwdriver
The vacuum cleaner
The dust buster mini-vac
Even in the bathroom, there's a motor in:
The fan
The electric toothbrush
The hair dryer
The electric shaver
Your car is loaded with electric motors:
Car windows (a motor in each window)
Power seats (up to seven motors per seat)
Fans for the heater and the radiator
Windshield wiper
The starter motor
Electric car radio antennas
Plus, there are motors in all sorts of other places:
Several are in the vcr/dvd player
Several in a cd player or
Many are in a computer and laptop (each hard drive has two or three, plus there's a fan or two)
Most toys that move have at least one motor
Electric hand clocks
The garage door opener
Aquarium pumps
In your house there are over 50 electric motors hidden in all sorts of devices. Everything that moves uses an electric motor to accomplish its movement.
Track Side Chat
Zero Turn Mowers
Zero turn mowers are used in the construction/maintenance, building, and landscaping industries, also moms and dads have them. These pieces of equipment are very dangerous, to be around, when they are in operation.
What are they used for _____?
Answer: They have a mower deck underneath the mower, or it can also be attached in the rear, or on the zero turns sides, it is used to cut grass. They use a gas or diesel engine to power the mower and turn very quickly and can make a circle.
What do you need to be aware of when around this piece of equipment?
Answer: When the zero turn is in motion, you can be run over, crushed, Cut by the mower blades, Hit with an object that is thrown from the mower deck, or severely hurt or even killed.
What you need to do to stay SAFE:
1. Stay across the street or in a yard/on a deck at least 50 feet/paces away for your safety.
2 .When sitting still, it still is dangerous because the zero turn has a muffler around its side, where you could reach in and get burned if the motor is still running or not cooled down, they also have sharp edges.
3. Always make sure the gas or diesel engine is turned off, and also cool before refueling to avoid an explosion and fire also before climbing up on mower. In addition, doing any maintenance (cleaning of mower deck or attachments).
4. When the zero turn is moving around the operator can't see you, if you are located on its rear or sides. The best area to be, if you need to be near this lawn mower is facing from the front, so the operator can see you, so they don't run over you. If you are located on the side, you could be hit with a rock from the mower deck discharge and run over because the zero turn turns so fast.
5. If you need to be near the operator, when the zero turn is in operation you should wear: safety glasses, gloves, hearing protection and if available a protective apron, dust mask, no shorts.
6. They usually don't have a very load beeping alarm, or a flashing white strobe light, to warn you when they are going to back up, so you will not know to move out of the way, Yell and move if you are in the way.
7. If in an enclosed area, or yard stay with your parents or aid at all times.
How to give this track side chat demonstration:
Display die cast and real equipment with miniature plastic people to explain, and show all moving parts, and how equipment moves and acts, when being used and all other danger points, including blind spots, by using colored layout sheets in three colors. Red for danger, Yellow for caution, Green for safe zone.
(Pictures are our own or taken from the web. We take no credit for pictures taken from the web just being used as a visual reference.)
© 2014-2024 Awareness Speedway Slot Car Club, Inc, © 2017-2024 R & C Speedway
Awareness Speedway Slot Car Club, Inc.
Educational Programs
Our educational programs were developed with the input from Pa licensed special needs therapists and parents as how to use slot cars and our club as teaching tools that can be used in your every day activities. Our educational programs may seem very simple to the non special needs person but for an intellectually challenged, special needs adults or children it may be a very big challenge. ASSCC has different levels of challenging classes for low level to highly functioning adults and children.
Our educational program is called:
Trackside ED
Trackside Ed is an educational program geared for intellectually disabled Special needs children and adults.
Objective:
We will incorporate these techniques to educate and stimulate our special friends in many areas of their daily life to show how our slot cars relate to every- day life. Our special friends will learn different aspects, of how and why, our cars stay in and fall off the track by having informational classes before they run our cars on the track.
We are going to have two different levels of education classes for our special friends, a basic class and an intermediate to advanced class. These classes are for our higher functioning special friends. The classes will use various common items, from the house, like marbles, common real world construction equipment, to common household items, toys, and die cast vehicles to educate our special friends by using visual and verbal aids with humor and fun.
Example: will use marbles, to show how gravity and velocity work in a manner that they will understand, and be able to relate to our cars. We will build upon this, to help them, progress on the track to faster cars.
We have our one of a kind safety classes, for our special friends.
These chats will be around 15 – 20 minutes long, special needs adults and children are usually curious, about construction, yard equipment, and race cars that are used in our community and at area race tracks.
This will provide an educational experience, added value of safety, so our special friends will recognize simple solutions to every day situations that we take for granted.
Trackside Ed
Module: Colors
#1- Colors #1
#2- Colors #2
#3- Colors #3
#4- Colors #4
Module: Measuring Class
#1 Measuring #1
#2 Measuring #2
Module: Shapes
#1- Shapes #1
#2- Shapes #2
#3- Advanced Shapes #1
Module: Friction
#1- Friction
Module: Painting
#1- Paint Colors Class #1
Module: Faster Car Purchase
#1- Faster Car purchase program
Module: Slot Cars and how they relate to everyday living
#1- History
#2- Electricity types
#3- How is A/C & D/C current produced
#4- How is A/C & D/c current distributed
#5- How is A/C & D/c Current used.
Module: Faster Car
#1- Faster Car
#2- Change Tire Sizes
#3- Gears 48 pitch, 1/8” axle, 9 tooth pinion, same body
#4- Gears 64 pitch, 1/8” axle, 9 tooth pinion, same body
#5- Gear 64 pitch, axle switch from 1/8” to 3/32” axle. same body
#6- Gears 64 pitch, 3/32” axle 9-10 tooth pinion, same body
#7- Change body with different styles and down force
#8- Blueprinting Chassis and car parts
#9- Different types of motors
#10- Purchase new car
If class description is in green class is not created. Black is completed.
Our Safety program
Our Safety program is a tool to educate and present information to help our intellectually disabled and special needs adults and children with learning about every day items up to heavy machinery. Our programs gives basic information on how the item works, were the safe and danger areas are, how to remain safe.
Our safety program is called:
Trackside Chat
Trackside chat is a safety program geared for intellectually disabled Special needs children and adults.
Objective:
Our program will use common real world construction equipment, to common household items, Toys, and die cast vehicles to educate our special friends on safety by using visual and verbal aids with humor and fun.
Exercise:
Display real equipment and die cast vehicles with miniature plastic people to explain and show all moving parts of how equipment moves and acts, when being used.
Other dangerous points including blind spots, by using colored layout sheets in three colors. Red for danger, Yellow for caution, Green for safe zone.
We will incorporate these techniques to educate and stimulate our special friends in many areas of their daily life to show how our slot cars, and die cast vehicles relate to every day life.
These chats will be around 15 – 20 minutes long Special needs adults and children are usually curious about construction/ yard equipment used in our community and at race tracks.
This will provide an educational experience, so our special friends will recognize simple solutions to every day situations that we take for granted.
Our three goals for the future:
1. To be able to purchase more die cast models and broken equipment, so we can use them as props for our safety program.
2. We would like to be able to have a room just for our safety program besides our education facilities and track areas.
3. To be able to have tours of places that have the equipment listed in our safety program to be able to get up close and personal in a safe and discreet setting.
Trackside Chat
Module: Home Yard Equipment
#1- Blowers
#2- Weed Eaters
#3- Edger’s
#4- Lawn Tractors
#4- Riding Lawn Mower
#5- Push Mowers
#6- Zero Turn Mowers
#7- Hedge Trimmers
#8- Small Snow Blowers
#9- Small Sprayers
#10- Small Snow Plow
Module: Construction/Quarry/Heavy Equipment
#1- Quarry Dump truck
#2- Dump Truck
#3- Dozer
#4- Pay Loader
#5- Grader
#6- Skid Loader (Bobcat)
#7- Track Hoe
#8- Back Hoe
#9- Large Rollers
#10- Small Rollers
#11- Plate Tamper
#12- Wacker
#13- Water Truck
#14- Soil Compactor
#15- Articulated Dump Truck
Module: Construction/Quarry/Heavy Equipment Continued
#16- Loggers
#17- Snow Blowers
#18- Snow Plows
#19- Track Loader
#20- Utility Loader
Module: General/Farm Use Equipment
#1- Small Spreader
#2- Hydro Seed Truck
#3- Small Spreader
Module: Heavy Lifting Equipment
#1- Gantry Crane
#2- Bridge Crane
#3- Helicopter Crane
#4- Mobile Crane
#5- Barge/Boat Crane
#6- Track Crane
#7- Tower Crane
Module: Transportation Equipment
#1- Propane Truck
#2- Propane Tankers
#3- Large Spreader
#4- Large Sprayers
#5- Fuel Truck
#6- Fuel Tankers
Module: Farm Equipment
Module: Household Items
If class description is in green class is not created. Black is completed.
ASSCC has an incentive program to help our special friends remember what we have discussed and instructed them it’s called:
Trackside Knowledge Challenge
Trackside knowledge challenge is an educational safety program geared for intellectually disabled and special needs children and adults to challenge previously given trackside chats or classes. Our program will be used when our special friends are racing on our track. These Knowledge Challenges will be around 5 – 10 minutes long.
We will shut off the track once or twice an hour and ask what time is it____?
Answer is:
Its Knowledge challenge time.
Objective:
We then will ask one or two questions, in an orderly fashion, to all of our participants that are racing our track.
This will help reinforce a trackside educational class or recognize dangers from a trackside chat and learn how to stay safe and away from those dangerous situations. We will give all participants 3 flash cards with the letter A, B, C on them. We will ask our question and give three answers (A, B, C). There will only be one correct answer, associated with each question with corresponding letter. The correct flash card answer must be displayed and letter must be in correct position. (Letters are backwards from front to back, of flash cards), to receive the three points for a correct answer.
The correct flash card answer must be displayed and letter must be in correct position. (Letters are backwards from front to back, of flash cards), to receive the three points for a correct answer.
We are going to start out by issuing everyone 1 point for participating and 3 points for a correct answer. We will keep a count of the points and when the participant reaches 35 points, they will be issued a certificate for 1 hour of free track time.
Future Goals:
1. Add Ski Ball machines to our educational and safety programs.
2 .Have a point total that equals a token to use in the ski ball machines to collect tickets.
3. Expand this program to include ski ball machine tickets. To be converted to vouchers after a ticket total is achieved that equals, 1 hr track time, and the cost of a new car. This will add to the excitement of earning prizes and receiving fun, based on learning and safety classes. Vouchers will be for our special friend’s members only, when this program is instituted.
Below are examples of an ED class and Chat class.
Matching Colors Class (Part I)
Matching colors is very important on Awareness speedways track so you don't crash and damage your car, or the track.
Objectives:
This class will challenge their reasoning skills and their situational awareness skills of their surroundings so no damage will occur to the cars /track or controllers. This class will be a very fun way of learning.
There are eight (8) colors that Awareness Speedway Slot Car Club uses that are very important:
There are 8 X's on the floor each of you can take turns standing on.
With the 8 X's on the floor – there is a matching color stand that is right in front of you.
The matching color stand relates to the color on the slot car track lane that your car uses.
Each time you move to a different color X – you will be on a different color and you will be on a different part of the track.
Here are the colors of our track in order from top to bottom:
Red
White
Green
Orange
Blue
Yellow
Purple
Black
Exercise:
When standing on the Red X – can you point to where the red slot on the track is located?
When standing on the White X – can you point to where the white slot is located on the track?
When standing on the Green X – can you point to where the green slot is located on the track?
(Continue with the rest of the colors)
This will insure that the cars are controlled and not running full speed into the wall causing a crash.
This assures that our special friends will be on the correct color with the correct colored lane and correct colored car.
Slot Car History
Slot cars are usually models of actual automobiles, though some have bodies purpose-designed for miniature racing. Most enthusiasts use commercially available slot cars (often modified for better performance); others motorize static models, and some "scratch-build," creating their own mechanisms and bodies from basic parts and materials.
Drivers generally use a hand-held controller to regulate a low-voltage electric motor hidden within the car. Traditionally, each car runs on a separate lane with its own guide-slot (though recently developed digital technology can allow cars to share and change lanes). The challenge, in racing slot cars comes in taking curves and other obstacles as fast as possible without causing the car to lose its grip and spin sideways, or to 'deslot', leaving the track, altogether.
Some enthusiasts, much as in model rail roading build elaborate tracks, sculpted to have the appearance of a real-life racecourse, including miniature buildings, trees and people. Hobbyists whose main goal is competition often prefer a track unobstructed by scenery. Model motorcycles, trucks and other vehicles that use the guide-slot system are generally included under the loose classification of "slot car." The first commercial slot cars were made by Lionel (USA) and appeared in their catalogues from 1912 drawing power from a toy train rail sunk in a trough or wide slot between the rails. They were surprisingly similar to modern slot cars, but independent speed control was available only as an optional extra. Production was discontinued after 1915.
Sporadically over the next forty years, several other electrically powered commercial products came and went. Although a patent was registered as far back as March 1936 for a slot car until the late 1950s, nearly all powered toy vehicles were guided by raised rails, either at the wheels (railroad-style), at the lane center, or edge. By the late 1930s, serious craftsmen/hobbyists were racing relatively large (1:16 - 1:18 scale) model cars powered by small internal combustion engine originally with spark-ignition, later with glow plug engines. For guidance, the cars were clamped to a single center rail, or tethered from the center of a circular track, then they were started and let go for timed runs. There was no driver control of either the speed or steering, so "gas car" racing was largely a mechanic's hobby. In the 1940s hobbyists in Britain began to experiment with controllable electric cars using hand built motors and in the 1950s using the small model train motors that had become available. In 1954, the Southport Model Engineering Society in the U.K. was challenged by a patent-holder for using rail-guided gas-car exhibitions to raise funds, so, as a replacement; the members constructed an electric racecourse, a groundbreaking 6-lane layout nearly 60 feet long, for 1:32 rail-guided cars, which are widely considered to be the progenitor of electric rail- and slot-racing.
In 1955-56, several clubs in the U.K. and U.S., inspired by the Southport layout were also racing electric cars guided by center rails, and soon after, by slots in the track surface. The term "slot car" was coined to differentiate these from the earlier "rail cars", as the member-built club layouts proliferated, the relative advantages of rail and slot were debated for several years, but the obtrusive appearance of the rails and their blocking of the car's rear wheels when sliding through corners was powerful disadvantages. New clubs increasingly chose the slot system. By 1963, even the pioneer rail-racing clubs had begun to switch to slots.
There are three common slot car scales (sizes): 1:24 scale, 1:32 scale, and so-called HO size (1:87 to 1:64 scale). - 1:24 scale cars are built so that one unit of length (such as an inch or millimeter) on the model equals 24 units on the actual car. 1:24 cars require a course so large as to be impractical for many home enthusiasts, so most serious 1:24 racing is done at commercial or club tracks. 1:32 scale cars are smaller and more suited to home-sized race courses but they are also widely raced on commercial tracks, in hobby shops or in clubs. This scale is the most popular in Europe, and is equivalent to the old #1 gauge (or "standard size") of toy trains.
HO-sized cars vary in scale. Because they were marketed as model railroad accessories, the original small slot cars of the early 1960s roughly approximated either American and European HO scale 1:87) or British OO scale 1:76. As racing in this size evolved, the cars were enlarged to take more powerful motors, and today they are closer to 1/64 in scale; but they still run on track of approximately the same width, and are generically referred to as HO slot cars.
Although there is HO racing on commercial and shop-tracks, probably most HO racing occurs on home racetracks.
In addition to the major scales, slot cars have been commercially produced in 1/48 and 1/43 scale corresponding to O scale model trains. 1:48 cars were promoted briefly in the 1960s, and 1:43 slot car sets are generally marketed today (2007) as children's toys.
Objectives:
To show how slot cars/ motors relate to our daily living.
Exercise:
Look around your house and you will find that it is filled with electric motors. Here's an interesting experiment for you to do: Walk through your house and check your car, count all the motors you find. List the items and bring back to the track, the next time you come to visit.
Starting in the kitchen, there are motors in:
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(Pictures are our own or taken from the web. We take no credit for pictures taken from the web just being used as a visual reference.)
Cheat Sheet to find electric motors:
The fan over the stove and in the microwave
The dispose-all under the sink
The blender
The can opener
The refrigerator- Two or three in fact: one for the compressor, one for the fan inside the refrigerator, as well as one in the icemaker.
The mixer
Probably even the dial clock on the oven/stove
In the laundry room, there is an electric motor in:
The washer
The dryer
The cordless Screwdriver
The vacuum cleaner
The dust buster mini-vac
Even in the bathroom, there's a motor in:
The fan
The electric toothbrush
The hair dryer
The electric shaver
Your car is loaded with electric motors:
Car windows (a motor in each window)
Power seats (up to seven motors per seat)
Fans for the heater and the radiator
Windshield wiper
The starter motor
Electric car radio antennas
Plus, there are motors in all sorts of other places:
Several are in the vcr/dvd player
Several in a cd player or
Many are in a computer and laptop (each hard drive has two or three, plus there's a fan or two)
Most toys that move have at least one motor
Electric hand clocks
The garage door opener
Aquarium pumps
In your house there are over 50 electric motors hidden in all sorts of devices. Everything that moves uses an electric motor to accomplish its movement.
Track Side Chat
Zero Turn Mowers
Zero turn mowers are used in the construction/maintenance, building, and landscaping industries, also moms and dads have them. These pieces of equipment are very dangerous, to be around, when they are in operation.
What are they used for _____?
Answer: They have a mower deck underneath the mower, or it can also be attached in the rear, or on the zero turns sides, it is used to cut grass. They use a gas or diesel engine to power the mower and turn very quickly and can make a circle.
What do you need to be aware of when around this piece of equipment?
Answer: When the zero turn is in motion, you can be run over, crushed, Cut by the mower blades, Hit with an object that is thrown from the mower deck, or severely hurt or even killed.
What you need to do to stay SAFE:
1. Stay across the street or in a yard/on a deck at least 50 feet/paces away for your safety.
2 .When sitting still, it still is dangerous because the zero turn has a muffler around its side, where you could reach in and get burned if the motor is still running or not cooled down, they also have sharp edges.
3. Always make sure the gas or diesel engine is turned off, and also cool before refueling to avoid an explosion and fire also before climbing up on mower. In addition, doing any maintenance (cleaning of mower deck or attachments).
4. When the zero turn is moving around the operator can't see you, if you are located on its rear or sides. The best area to be, if you need to be near this lawn mower is facing from the front, so the operator can see you, so they don't run over you. If you are located on the side, you could be hit with a rock from the mower deck discharge and run over because the zero turn turns so fast.
5. If you need to be near the operator, when the zero turn is in operation you should wear: safety glasses, gloves, hearing protection and if available a protective apron, dust mask, no shorts.
6. They usually don't have a very load beeping alarm, or a flashing white strobe light, to warn you when they are going to back up, so you will not know to move out of the way, Yell and move if you are in the way.
7. If in an enclosed area, or yard stay with your parents or aid at all times.
How to give this track side chat demonstration:
Display die cast and real equipment with miniature plastic people to explain, and show all moving parts, and how equipment moves and acts, when being used and all other danger points, including blind spots, by using colored layout sheets in three colors. Red for danger, Yellow for caution, Green for safe zone.
(Pictures are our own or taken from the web. We take no credit for pictures taken from the web just being used as a visual reference.)
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