Engineering through Design
5th Graders: Today the 5th graders were faced with similar challenges in constructing sturdy structures that would withstand forces and serve their function. Each group collaborated and came up with amazing designs for all challenges. The hardest challenge they faced was the marshmallow spaghetti stick challenge where they had to come up with creative, ingenious ways of designing their towers. Two groups used squares as their bases and one used triangles but each group took a completely different approach of meeting the requirements. At the end, each group surpassed the baseline requirement of holding 10 pennies, with one of the groups holding 116 pennies!
Next was the paper folding challenge where each group had to design a standing paper structure that had to meet certain height requirements and had to be able to hold textbooks. The challenging part was that each group was limited to having only one piece of copy paper and four pieces of tape. Again each group used their prior knowledge and lessons they had learned today to come up with sturdy designs. Each group was successful, with one holding 8 textbooks!
The final challenge was building bridges. Again there were material constraints with each group only receiving a bundle of straws, scissors, and 6 pieces of tape. The 5th graders continued forward with what they had and came up with unique ways of attaching the straws together and designing their bridge. Later when the bridges were tested, one bridge ended up holding 300+ pennies (filled the cup completely).
The 5th graders worked together very well to surpass the engineering challenges today!