Amusement Park Engineer - Bucking Bull
Students become amusement park engineers as they design and build their own Bucking Bull ride. Along the way, they will explore the fundamentals of mechanical motion and motor control, discovering how gears, linkages, and a DC motor work together to bring their creation to life.
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Curriculum
Surprise! You've just been hired as an engineer at EBK Amusement Park! There's just one problem—there aren't any rides yet. In this hands-on workshop, students will design, build, and code the park's very first attraction: The Bucking Bull. Along the way, they'll discover how gears, linkages, and DC motors work together to create exciting mechanical movement while developing practical engineering and programming skills.
Subject Content
- Electromagnetism & DC Motor Fundamentals
- Power Management & Motor Driver Architecture
- Mechanical Torque Transmission (Shafts & Keys)
- Gear Dynamics & Ratio Engineering
- Linkage Mechanisms (Crank-Rocker Systems)
Course Outcomes
- Learn how magnetic fields, rotors, copper coils, commutators, and brushes interact to convert direct current into rotational motion.
- Investigate how magnetic domains and current direction dictate electromagnetic poles and polarity reversal.
- Understand how rotating shafts, keys, and keyways lock together to transmit torque across mechanical assemblies without slipping.
- Calculate gear ratios and evaluate torque vs. speed trade-offs across different gear geometries (Spur, Helical, and Herringbone).
- Learn how four-bar linkages (Crank-Rocker mechanisms) convert continuous 360° rotational force into controlled, oscillating bucking motion.
Curriculum Alignment
The Bucking Bull project has been mapped against both the Western Australian Curriculum (WACE) and the Victorian Curriculum F–10 (VCAA), covering Years/Levels 3–4 through 9–10. Full mapping tables — content codes, project application and general capabilities — are available to download below.
Western Australian Curriculum
Maps to Design & Technologies, Digital Technologies and Science across Years 3–4, 5–6, 7–8 and 9–10 — covering linkages and gears, forces and motion, mechanical design, safe assembly, and evaluation of the finished bucking bull ride.
WACE MappingVictorian Curriculum F–10
Maps to the Critical and Creative Thinking capability across Levels 3–4, 5–6, 7–8 and 9–10 — developing questioning, reasoning and reflection as students design, test and refine the linkage and gear mechanisms driving the ride.
VCAA Mapping