Design Challenge: "Egg"cellent Engineering!
Prompts and questions to ask the students (related to the aspect of budget)
- What is a budget? Can it be related to multiple things?
- Money
- Time
- Manpower
- How do you ensure you don’t go over budget?
- Testing with cheaper material?
- When to use more of the cheap material/less of the expensive (maybe better) material
- Identifying supply and demand of things?
- Have you ever worked on a budget?
- Of time/of money?
- Taking a test, you allocate time to different questions
Prompts and questions to ask the students (related to the aspect of the science of activity)
- Why do things fall?
- What is force?
- Why do things break?
- Who was Newton?
- What is gravity?
- Have you ever broken an egg? How? What are egg cartons made of and why?
Aim of the challenge
Build a structure that will prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from 8ft. Manage your budget in a manner that allows you to effectively build your design while also not running out of money. Keep track of your expenses, and document your process including the materials used, the steps taken, and failures/successes. Learn how to document and optimize like an industrial engineer!
Videos to watch before the challenge
- Build a container to prevent a raw egg from breaking (or cracking) when it is dropped from 8 ft (or from the height of your ceiling)
- Use the Engineering Design worksheet to plan your design, keep track of your expenses, and document your trial results and changes made. Take pictures or record videos.
- The design should cost as little as possible and remain under the $12 budget
- Your first egg is free - if your first design fails to protect the egg, you may “purchase” additional supplies and a second egg to try again! Two eggs means at least two tries. If the first egg breaks during a trial run, you will need to pay for egg 2 out of your budget; make changes to your design, and test again.
- Pro Tip: Avoid messes by keeping the egg in its Ziploc during the test AND lay out a plastic garbage bag in your testing zone
Rules
- Work with your team/family, and do not access online or external materials for designs
- Stay within your $12 budget
“Free” material
- 1 egg
- 1 Ziploc (to put the egg in)
- $12 in Fake Money to purchase additional supplies
- Scissors
- Elmer’s Glue
Supplies to “Purchase” ($12 budget)
- Toilet Paper Rolls (2) – $2/roll
- Ziploc Bag (1) – $0.50
- Tissues (5) – $1/tissue
- Popsicle sticks (10) – $0.25/stick
- Cup (1) – $2
- Cotton balls (8) – $0.50/ball
- 8.5×11” printer paper (3) – $1/sheet
- 6×10” piece of cardboard – $2
- Rubber Bands (10) -$0.50/band
- Masking Tape (2 ft) – $1/ft
- Straws (6) – $0.50/straw
- Yarn (2 ft) – $0.25/ft
- Egg #2 – $1
Step #1: Explore the available materials and sketch a plan for your first design
Step #2: Build your first prototype! Feel free to alter your plans above as you build. Keep track of the materials you use with their costs to make sure you stay under budget
Step #3: Test! Take your prototype to the “track” and see how well it works. Record your observations.
Step #4: Modify! Make modifications and retest at least 3 times. Keep making changes to improve this first design! For each new test, record the modifications you made, the observations as well as what you learned each time.
- What worked? Why? What challenges did you face?
- How did you organize your budget? Would you have done it differently?
- How can these concepts be applied somewhere else?
- How is your design unique?
- How and when do you see these concepts in day-to-day life?
- Where can you apply these concepts to improve something you are doing?
- What other materials could have been used? Will they work?
- Note: Take photos and explanations from students. Ask them to make posters/ diagrams etc to explain what they learned
Zoom Recording
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