This is a great engineering project as it requires cheap and easily accessible materials - plastic or paper cups. Any size will work too! Be sure to start with an easy-to-achieve tower height so all teams that work together can be successful. Then challenge them to build the tallest tower they can with their materials.
There are also a myriad of additional variations on the basic challenge:
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It's been a great but crazy year! I can not wait to see you again in the fall. This is my last post. But fear not! I've listed some of my favorite sites for finding activities for students. Remember, science is all around you!
And YES! I will continue to send the patches to Sunol Glen Students if you keep doing science experiments over the summer. I will reward you for completing ANY 10 or 20 science experiments, even if you did not find them on my blog. Just have your parent send me an email letting me know you're done - do not forget to include your address so I can send your patch. Have a GREAT Summer! Great Science Websites:
And don't forget this great resource: Summer is a great time to experiment out doors. This is a fun engineering project will allow you to bake using only the sun's energy. You'll need a sunny day (not necessarily a hot one) and a "subject" (something your baking) to test on. Do some research on ways to attract and retain the sun's energy and then give this a try.
Today's engineering project does not have a challenge - just instructions on how to build it. It's a fun way to make a card special as you are thinking of making cards for Teachers, Coaches, and others as the school year comes to a close. When they open the card a butterfly will come fluttering out adding to your surprise (see a fun video here). If you want to add a little biology to this project, take a look at actual butterflies and try to make yours resemble one of them.
This is one I use in class a lot. I like this one because ideas start out very different but as students go through the analyze > redesign > re-test phase of engineering (more on that here) they almost all end up with the same design because in this case, physics dictates that there really is one answer. The challenge? Use a single 10" x 10 " piece of foil to create a "boat" to hold as many pennies as possible before sinking. Good luck!
This is one of my favorite engineering projects because it can be just for fun or you can learn a lot about the physics of catapults - which makes it a great project for families with kids of multiple ages. I include instructions for two different types of simple catapults. They take about 5 minutes to build and a lot more time trying to hit your target! My challenge to you is to figure out how to control variables to make your catapult as consistent as possible. That means your catapult can hit your target most (80%) of the time. This is not as easy as it sounds. An alternative challenge is to try more than one catapult and determine which one is the most accurate. There are also lots of designs on the web or you can try to build one of your own design.
This is one of my favorite engineering challenges. In part because I've seen so many different designs and because you really need to think about how to best use your material. There are many ways you could set this challenge up. My challenge to you is to build the tallest tower you can with 20 cards and no tape. The record in my classroom is about 85 cm. If you've already done that challenge, change it up - allow yourself 12 inches of tape - and then see what you can do. Or make up your own challenge!
Hi Students! I have a fun challenge for you today. When I was in High School, my physics teacher challenged us to build a boat out of CARDBOARD that at least two students could sit in and paddle across the school pool. My friend and I were successfully able to meet the challenge and sat in our boat while we watched others attempt the challenge. We were not sunk until the post-race water fight.
So, I challenge you to build a cardboard boat. If you have a pool and enough cardboard for a full on test with a person - great! If you are like most of us, I would like your boat to hold 9 ounces of weight and be able to stay afloat for 1 minute in the bath tub. When doing engineering projects with your students, it is important to remember that engineering is a process. As the graphic below shows, this process has a key part which is prototype > test > analyze results > re-design which brings you back to a prototype. The best engineering projects give students a chance to go through this loop at least twice. That way students learn from their successes and failures and end up with a better design.
Engineering projects are my favorite kind to do with my students. It is always amazing to see the many ways students try to solve a problem and how creative they are. Even better, engineering is done as a team. Solutions are always better when a team of students work together than when students work on the problem individually. So grab your whole family and give this a try!
Challenge: Stand on paper cups without crushing them. Bonus Challenge: Have the biggest person in your family stand on paper cups without crushing them (a person holding weight works too!). |
You Can Continue to Earn the Patches over the SUmmer!
welcome!
Every school day I will post a new experiment for you to try at home. Some may be familiar to you - as they are my favorites from class - but most will be experiments I found on the web that have readily available materials. Happy Sciencing! Earn a Patch
Sunol Glen Students - Complete an additional 10 experiments (20 total) from this site and I will send you this patch: Parents - just email me when students have completed a challenge, no proof required. Categories |