Zane Middle School P.E. equipment cart

Abstract

Team Enterprise with finished P.E. equipment cart.

Fig 1: Final Cart Design

Fig 2: Front view of cart

The purpose of this project was to work with Zane Middle School representative and P.E. Instructor, Garett Montana, to address the problems of storing and transporting P.E. equipment. The need for a P.E. equipment cart for the school was addressed and different designs were analyzed for possible solutions. The most important design of the cart must allow for storage of the P.E. jump-ropes that prevents them from tangling and kinking.

Background

Zane Middle School, located in Eureka, CA is one of the largest middle schools from just north of San Francisco all the way up to Oregon. P.E. is a mandatory class for all students who attend the middle school; there are 6 P.E. classes a day (each 1 hour long) 5 days a week. At the start of every P.E. class they begin by doing jump-roping, and they continue to do so until the last person has finished, after which they then begin their daily activity. Zane Middle School reached out to our class in the spring of 2019 because their P.E. class is in need of a cart which needs to accomplish a few things; easily transport and store P.E. equipment while also preventing tangling/ kinking of the jump-ropes.

Problem Statement and Criteria

Zane Middle School's P.E. classes have to manually move all of the P.E. equipment separately every class and have to manually return each separately as well. When returning jump-ropes after use students roll each up and they are all thrown into a bucket for storage. This system for storing jump-ropes results in tangling and kinking of the jump-ropes, leading to longer time to unravel them and having to used kinked jump-ropes which makes them harder to use. To solve this Problem Team Enterprise has designed and created a cart that would allow for all equipment to be stored and moved all together on one cart; in doing so it also secures and properly stores jump-ropes preventing them from tangling and kinking.

Description of final project

The P.E. Equipment cart is approximately four feet tall and features lower shelving for bucket storage as well as room for other supplies as needs. A top shelf is also included allowing for additional storage and simple access to supplies. The cart’s special design is an original Team Enterprise design; around the top sides of the cart are boards on both sides which securely hold the jump ropes. These boards are made from wood and were individual cut out in a tooth like design. It stores jump ropes in the crevasses in between each “tooth”and are held in place by inverted hooks at the bottom side edges of the cart. One simply folds the jump rope in half and hooks the rope below, then holding both handles notch them in the slot above corresponding to the right hook. This design enables the jump ropes to be held and stored without tangling and preventing kinking, allowing for the jump ropes to be in better shape when using and last longer. The cart is simple yet meets all the qualifications from the client.

Fig 4: Google Sketch-up side view of the final design

Fig 1: Final Cart Design

Prototyping

While prototyping for this cart design we wanted to make them be as close as possible to our decided final design. We made one small scale prototype to physically see our design and see how practical it actually is. Following the small scale prototype we built a full size prototype in order to make sure our design was as functional as we planned and to find what measurements would work best for the car.t

Fig 5: Prototype 1, side view of a small scaled cart

Fig 6: Prototype 2, life size version of cardboard model

Testing Results

Once we completely finished constructing our cart we starting putting jump ropes on to test our system and to see how well our notch boards work for holding the jump ropes. We were very pleased to see that our design was a success and able to properly and sufficiently serve its purpose as a P.E. Equipment cart.

How to build

Title:

1. Get (1) piece of wood approximately 10ft x 1ft x 2”

   • 
     Cut wood board in half
   • 
     Measure and cut even notches into top edge of each
2. Putting it together

   • 
     Assemble Cart
   • 
     Spray paint cart and let dry
   • 
     Paint wood boards
3. Finishing up

   • 
     Screw boards into top sides of cart and hooks on bottom
   • 
     Put jump ropes on and ready to roll

Maintenance

This P.E. equipment cart requires very minimal maintenance and very rarely.

Troubleshooting

This is only how to troubleshoot basic operation. For complex issues, contact Team Enterprise at Humboldt State University.

Discussion and next steps

In the final construction of the P.E. Equipment cart we initially painted the cart with Sherwin Williams all surface enamel paint; however, when dried this paint peeled very easily. We realized that we could not use this paint because it would not last, instead we used Kraylon Fusion spray paint meant for plastic surfaces which worked excellently.

Suggestions for future changes

Caster wheels can be replaced by simply unscrewing with a phillips-head screwdriver or drill.

References

Contact details

Team Enterprise can be contacted through HSU's Engineering 215 class