Activity 1.2: Ready, Set, Design Challenge

Activity 1.2: Ready, Set, Design Challenge

Objective:

Students will apply design thinking through a hands-on challenge by brainstorming, building, and presenting a prototype using limited materials.

Essential Question

How do engineers use creativity and teamwork to solve problems?

Materials

• Paper lunch bags (one per group).

• Challenge cards.

• Materials are divided into categories, including fasteners, surfaces, and structures

• Examples include pipe cleaners, rubber bands, string, paper clips, coffee filters, cardboard squares, balloons, paper, straws, tongue depressors, wooden skewers, and foil.

• Timer.

Introduction

• Tell students that they will participate in a quick design challenge that helps them think like engineers.

• Explain that this activity uses simple materials but requires creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving.

• Tell students that engineers often work with constraints and must design solutions using limited resources.

Guided Practice

1. Place students in teams of two to four.

2. Provide each team with one paper bag containing materials and a challenge card.

3. Tell students that they must read the challenge and design a solution using only the materials provided.

4. Explain that students will begin with brainstorming before building.

5. Tell students that they will have five minutes to generate as many ideas as possible. Emphasize that during brainstorming, there is no judging, many ideas should be shared, and creative thinking is encouraged.

6. After brainstorming, instruct students to begin building their prototype.

7. Explain that a prototype is a simple model used to show how a design works. It is not meant to be perfect.

8. Students will have fifteen minutes to build their solution.

9. During the activity, monitor teams, support collaboration, and prompt students to think about how their design solves the problem.

Independent Practice

• Students complete their prototypes within the time limit.

• After building, each group prepares a short explanation of their design.

• Provide students with the following structure to support their explanation:

• We are helping ________
  Who need ________
  We created ________
  It works by ________
  It helps because ________

• Each group presents its solution to the class.