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Challenge
1:
Design of a Can Rover
Suggested Grade Level: 6
Suggested Length: 3 weeks
Description:
The Design Experience Challenge 1 consists of three
challenges suitable for grades 4-6. Each of these challenges can
be taught over a three-week period or, with suggested extensions,
over a longer period.
Steel Can Rover Challenge (Grade 6)
Students make rolling toys from coffee cans, powered by rubber bands
and weights. The challenge is for the class to design a fleet of
toy vehicles that meet a range of performance criteria including
speed, travel distance, and manner of stopping. Students experiment
systematically to explore relationships between rubber band thickness,
number of wind-up turns, amount of weight, and wheel size. Physical
concepts embedded in this challenge include inertia, friction, and
energy transformation.
As students strive to optimize the performance of their toy vehicle,
they express their ideas, test their hypotheses, and draw their
own conclusions based on the evidence they gather. In this way,
their experience resembles the work of scientists and engineers.
The science notes that accompany each challenge describe concepts
associated with the performance of the vehicles the students design
and build.
Engineering
Design Experience
A unique feature of this program is the use of a problem-solving
process employed by engineers in design teams and taught at many
engineering schools across the country. The "Engineering Design
Experience" provides a problem-solving context in which students
design a product or devise a solution to a problem. Teams of three
students examine what must be accomplished and who the product is
for; gather and synthesize information; design, develop, and test
a prototype design; and prepare a presentation of their design ideas.
The Engineering Design Experience consists of five phases:
- Set
Goals
- Build
Knowledge
- Design
- Build
and Test
- Present
Curriculum
Content
The Engineering Design Experience is an applied problem-solving
process, which enables students to see how the field of engineering
integrates knowledge and skills from science, mathematics, and technology.
In using this process, the design challenge provides the contexts
in which students can apply content and concepts from their previous
learning experiences.
Education
Standards
The challenge embraces the direction of national and state standards
in science and mathematics education. This program conforms specifically
with both the National Research
Council standards to promote the education of students to develop
products and solutions to problems using
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Teacher's
Manual
technological
design, and the National Council
of Teachers of Mathematics standards that emphasize teaching
students to see mathematical connections to the real-world through
mathematical thinking, modeling, and problem solving. In addition,
this program correlates with the Texas
Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) criteria in science, mathematics,
and technology.
Challenge 1- Can Rover Materials
Components consist of a teacher's kit and classroom materials.
Teacher's kit contains
- Teacher's
manual
- Videos
- Posters
- Re-order
information
A
set of classroom materials (enough for 27 students) contains
- 24
coffee can lids with 1/4-inch center hole
- 24
lids: 6 3/4-inch plastic lids with 1/4-inch center hole
- 24
bolts: 1 1/4-inch hook bolts, 10-24 thread
- 24
hex nuts, 10-24 thread
- 24
wing nuts, 10-24 thread
- 48
washers: 1 1/4-inch, size 10 fender washers
- 100
#64 rubber bands
- 100
#31 rubber bands
- 12
canisters: 35 mm film canister with lid
- 12
nylon hose clamps
- 180
washers: 9/16-inch SAE washers
- 250
labels: 3/4-inch diameter sticky dots (adhesive labels), two
colors
Before
beginning this challenge, teachers need to collect one empty 4-inch
diameter steel coffee can for each design team of three students.
This size can holds from 11 to 16 ounces, depending on the brand.
A
World in Motion is a product of the Society
of Automotive Engineers Foundation.
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