Today I gave the students a design activity; they had to design and build a candy bag using printer paper and tape. The test weight was candy (8 fun-sized peanut M&Ms for second hour and 8 fun-sized Baby Ruth bars for third hour).
A successful design was defined as follows:
1. Bag is contructed entirely of paper and tape
2. Candy fits completely inside the bag
3. Bag must have handles
4. Bag holds candy from the center island in the back of the classroom to the fronto of the classroom and back
5. Bag remains intact
Groups with a successful design keep their candy. It took the groups in second hour 10 minutes to finish constructing their bags. The groups in third hour needed more time. All the bags were successful; if a group finished early I had them test their bag to determine it needed more work. The students enjoyed the activity.
The point of the activity was to give them a glimpse into what engineers do, in general. Since there have been issues with the students not reading directions, I had the class read through the instructions individually first and then I asked the class questions about what they had to do. This approached seemed to work; so I'll use it again for the next lab/activity.
