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Aerodynamic Distance (8/2/13)
We had to design an airplane that would fly as far as possible with the given materials!
We had to design an airplane that would fly as far as possible with the given materials!
Materials
· 2 sheets of paper · 2 rubber bands · 12 in. piece of string · 3 straws · 12 in. of masking tape · 5 paper clips · 1 plastic grocery bag · 2 tongue depressors |
Conclusion Questions
1. How did your experience in the first Instant Challenge help you in solving this problem? It helped me to brainstorm ideas under pressure. 2. Did you make changes during your Design/Build/Test phase that resulted in your vehicle flying a shorter distance? If so, what were the changes? A balloon was attached to our prototype and we found out that it caused drag so we had to take it off. We didn't have enough time to make further more changes since we were only given 5 minutes to do so. Now we were left with a plain old paper airplane (popsicle sticks were actually attached inside the paper airplane). 3. Do you think it is more productive to continually test your product or to test at set time intervals? Why? It is more productive to test your product at set time intervals because it helps you manage your time better and it will help you spend more time on other things because testing your design is just a small part of this activity. |
![Picture](/uploads/2/2/4/2/22423108/1376481238.png)
Cable Car (8/9/13)
The objective is to make a cable car that would go through the line.
The objective is to make a cable car that would go through the line.
Materials
· 1 sheet of cardstock · 2 tongue depressors · 2 paper clips · 2 rubber bands · 1 straw · Toilet paper or paper towel roll · 1 balloon · 12 inches of string · 6 inches of masking tape · Small figure · Scissors |
Conclusion
1. Why do you think brainstorming is helpful when solving a problem? Brainstorming is helpful when solving a problem because if you stick with the first idea you thought of, chances are you could have developed better ideas by brainstorming. 2. How did testing improve your design? When we tested our cable car, we noticed that the balloon wasn't really holding on to the frame of the cable car(toilet roll) so we punctured the balloon and taped over the hole. 3. With respect to designing the solution of a problem, what are some important characteristics of a successful team? To have a successful team, you really need to respect everybody's ideas, no matter how silly they are. You can't just ignore everybody's ideas and expect to come up with a good solution, you were put in a team for a reason! |