Description
- Construct a device to absorb the force from an initial 1-m drop then use the engineering cycle to design a final model to achieve the highest drop distance.
- Middle School/High School engineering design challenge with enough materials for 15 lab groups.
- Carolina Kits 3D®—Lab activity that designs a solution for an engineering problem to support the NGSS and 3-dimensional instruction.
In this series of hands-on activities students learn about momentum, collisions, and stopping force as they address the Engineering Challenge, “How can a container be built to protect fragile cargo during a collision?” Teams get started by building cubic, triangular, and cylindrical egg containers, dropping them from increasing heights and evaluating their effectiveness at protecting the egg within from damage. Students apply what they have learned in order to achieve the highest drop in which the egg remains intact, competing in 1 of 4 design challenges: Single Drop, Three Sides Drop, Limited Mass Drop, or Limited Volume Drop. The reengineered egg protectors are entered into a classroom competition, which can be scored using the Design Challenge Scoring Rubrics.
Time Requirement
Total, 210 minutes. Teacher prep, 30 minutes. Background, prototyping, and the design challenge, 105 minutes. Assessment and presentation, 75 minutes.
Digital Resources
Includes 1-year access to digital resources that support 3-dimensional instruction for NGSS. Digital resources may include a teacher manual and student guide, pre-lab activities and setup videos, phenomenon videos, simulations, and post-lab analysis and assessments.
Crosscutting Concepts
Structure and Function
Science and Engineering Practices
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Learning Objectives
- Compare the effectiveness of containers of various shapes at protecting a dropped egg.
- Apply the concepts of momentum and force to brainstorm ideas for the design of an egg container.
- Build and test a protective container for a dropped egg.
Prerequisite Knowledge and Skills
Prior knowledge of momentum, collisions, and Newton’s third law are useful.