Calendar Icon
Oct 27, 2015
Person Bust Icon
By Karl Vogel
RSS
Submit a Story
Remembering an old habit is often referred to as being "as easy as riding a bicycle."
But what if that bicycle couldn't be operated in the usual manner? What if the bike turned right when the handlebars are steered to the left?
Engineer Destin Sandlin found out that learning to ride this type of bicycle required more than just a will to do it, it required retraining his brain over a long period of time.
Inspired by a video Sandlin posted to YouTube.com titled "The Backwards Brain Bicycle", a civil engineering graduate student and an instructor on the Omaha campus teamed up to build one of those bicycles to teach students those same lessons.
"All your life, you learn how to do certain things in certain ways. There are steps and processes for doing even the simplest of things. All those connections are made in your brain," said Alma Ramirez-Rodgers, who teaches Engineering 100 on the College of Engineering's Omaha campus. The class is designed to help freshman learn about academic success, study habits and time management skills.
When Anthony Flott, communications director for the UNO Alumni Association, contacted the College of Engineering for help building a similar bike, Ramirez-Rodgers sought a student to construct it.
Mitchell Kowalewski, a research assistant who often works on concrete and structures, saw the project as an opportunity to do some hands-on work that inspired him to become an engineer.
"I like getting my hands dirty and tinkering with things. I like to find out why things work the way they do and then try to find a way to make it better," Kowalewski said. "When I was younger, my dad did a lot of remodeling on our house and he would rope me into the construction aspect of it.
"One of the things I have grown to enjoy is machining. I spend the majority of my time in the structures lab at PKI and I get to build forms and machine parts for what I need on my projects. Doing the bike allowed me to get mechanical for a while."
A former engineering student donated the bike for the project, and Kowalewski started work on the project in late July.
The modifications, which took nearly a week, included removing the handlebars and welding a gear to the front fork. Next, Kowalewski fabricated a metal dowel and welded it to the bike so the handlebars could be operated by the gear. This is what causes the front wheel to move opposite of the direction the handlebars are steered.
Once the bike was finished, Kowalewski took one turn at trying to ride it.
"I rode it once, and it wasn't pretty," Kowalewski said. "Most people can only put one foot on the pedal and then they have to put that foot back on the ground because they can't get both feet up without feeling like they're falling. I thought I'd just get on it and coast down the driveway at PKI, and I couldn't even do that."
After the bicycle was completed, it was used for an alumni association event in Omaha. Ramirez-Rodgers, who is also assistant director of college relations and student programs for the college, then asked to borrow it for her class.
Her young students experienced the same difficulties that Kowalewski encountered.
"As I thought, nobody could ride it," Ramirez-Rodgers said. "I offered them a free lunch, then I upped it to $50 if they could ride it for two revolutions, which is about five seconds, and it was impossible."
"There was one who wanted to keep trying it and a few other people wanted to try it because they wanted to figure it out. But, really, you can't figure it out in one trial."
Sandlin, who created the video, needed nearly eight months of trying for at least five minutes a day to train his brain to use the bike. His five-year-old son, however, picked it up in only a couple of weeks.
Ramirez-Rodgers said this "Backward Brain Bicycle" is a great way to demonstrate to students that they may have followed certain habits to be successful in high school but that those habits may have to change in college. This is especially important for students studying engineering. Just as in learning how to ride the bike, it will take time and perseverance to learn a better system for being successful as a college student.
"They say it takes approximately two weeks for a habit to form and take root," Rodgers-Ramirez said. "If you don't commit to changing, and practice that new thing for a while, it's never going to happen."
But what if that bicycle couldn't be operated in the usual manner? What if the bike turned right when the handlebars are steered to the left?
Engineer Destin Sandlin found out that learning to ride this type of bicycle required more than just a will to do it, it required retraining his brain over a long period of time.
Inspired by a video Sandlin posted to YouTube.com titled "The Backwards Brain Bicycle", a civil engineering graduate student and an instructor on the Omaha campus teamed up to build one of those bicycles to teach students those same lessons.
"All your life, you learn how to do certain things in certain ways. There are steps and processes for doing even the simplest of things. All those connections are made in your brain," said Alma Ramirez-Rodgers, who teaches Engineering 100 on the College of Engineering's Omaha campus. The class is designed to help freshman learn about academic success, study habits and time management skills.
When Anthony Flott, communications director for the UNO Alumni Association, contacted the College of Engineering for help building a similar bike, Ramirez-Rodgers sought a student to construct it.
Mitchell Kowalewski, a research assistant who often works on concrete and structures, saw the project as an opportunity to do some hands-on work that inspired him to become an engineer.
"I like getting my hands dirty and tinkering with things. I like to find out why things work the way they do and then try to find a way to make it better," Kowalewski said. "When I was younger, my dad did a lot of remodeling on our house and he would rope me into the construction aspect of it.
"One of the things I have grown to enjoy is machining. I spend the majority of my time in the structures lab at PKI and I get to build forms and machine parts for what I need on my projects. Doing the bike allowed me to get mechanical for a while."
A former engineering student donated the bike for the project, and Kowalewski started work on the project in late July.
The modifications, which took nearly a week, included removing the handlebars and welding a gear to the front fork. Next, Kowalewski fabricated a metal dowel and welded it to the bike so the handlebars could be operated by the gear. This is what causes the front wheel to move opposite of the direction the handlebars are steered.
Once the bike was finished, Kowalewski took one turn at trying to ride it.
"I rode it once, and it wasn't pretty," Kowalewski said. "Most people can only put one foot on the pedal and then they have to put that foot back on the ground because they can't get both feet up without feeling like they're falling. I thought I'd just get on it and coast down the driveway at PKI, and I couldn't even do that."
After the bicycle was completed, it was used for an alumni association event in Omaha. Ramirez-Rodgers, who is also assistant director of college relations and student programs for the college, then asked to borrow it for her class.
Her young students experienced the same difficulties that Kowalewski encountered.
"As I thought, nobody could ride it," Ramirez-Rodgers said. "I offered them a free lunch, then I upped it to $50 if they could ride it for two revolutions, which is about five seconds, and it was impossible."
"There was one who wanted to keep trying it and a few other people wanted to try it because they wanted to figure it out. But, really, you can't figure it out in one trial."
Sandlin, who created the video, needed nearly eight months of trying for at least five minutes a day to train his brain to use the bike. His five-year-old son, however, picked it up in only a couple of weeks.
Ramirez-Rodgers said this "Backward Brain Bicycle" is a great way to demonstrate to students that they may have followed certain habits to be successful in high school but that those habits may have to change in college. This is especially important for students studying engineering. Just as in learning how to ride the bike, it will take time and perseverance to learn a better system for being successful as a college student.
"They say it takes approximately two weeks for a habit to form and take root," Rodgers-Ramirez said. "If you don't commit to changing, and practice that new thing for a while, it's never going to happen."
-
Taking a donated bicycle and re-mounting the handlebars with a gear mechanism created the "Reverse Operating Bike" that is being used to teach Engineering 100 students in Omaha the importance of thinking in new ways. -
Civil engineering graduate student Mitchell Kowalewski, who works as a research assistant in the concrete structures laboratory, transformed the normal bicycle into the "Reverse Operating Bike."
Submit a Story