S.O.S. (Save Our Springfield)
We decided to build an obstacle course because we wanted to set up problems for ourselves to solve. We created a story around the obstacle course. The background to the story is the town of Springfield, home town of the Simpsons.
There has been an earthquake and many of the buildings have been damaged. There is an emergency at the Isotope Nuclear Power Station. The station can no longer safely hold the nuclear waste. The waste must be transported to a disused mine at the other side of the town.
A truck must collect the nuclear waste from the power station. The waste is loaded onto the truck by conveyor belt. The truck then heads off towards the bridge. But the bridge is raised. The truck sends a signal to the bridge and this lowers the bridge in time for the truck to cross. Then there is a fallen building blocking the street.
The first truck cannot get past and another truck is waiting at the other side. The first truck passes the nuclear waste to the waiting truck. The second truck then comes to a junction where it must choose from three streets. If it goes left down Burns Boulevard Springfield Elementary School has collapsed into the street and the street is blocked.
If it goes right, down Milhouse Street, electric cables have snapped and there is a massive fire. The only route to the mine is straight ahead. When the truck reaches the mine it signals the mine and the gate opens. The truck drives in and empties the nuclear waste into the mine.
We built the first truck with a loader at the front. The container is delivered from the conveyor belt at the power station into the loader. The loader drops the container into a trailer behind the second truck.
The mine, the bridge and part of the power station are made of Lego. The other buildings in Springfield are made from cardboard. We made the school, the Town Hall, the power station, Moe’s, the Quick-e-Mart.
We have also recorded a news bulletin from Clontubrid Network News (CNN), which reports from Springfield after the earthquake. There are reports from several locations throughout the city. The report has been prepared as a PowerPoint presentation, which runs with the models.