Wanted: Transformative Turtle Transportation and Aviation, inc. needs engineers and designers for immediate openings in Baltimore County, MD.

You are a flying machine designer for Transformative Turtle Transportation and Aviation Inc. and are tasked to lead a design committee. You get to choose which committee to lead. Will you design a flying machine to communicate with your neighbors? A flying machine that will spread nature? A flying machine to bring joy to a family member? Or will you create your own committee? You will have three weeks to dream up, build, test, and record data about your design.

Week 1: Design your Flying Machine

OUTCOMES:

I can…

• Identify a problem and design a flying machine to solve that problem

• Make my flying machine design fit the constraints

• Develop a design plan to illustrate how my flying machine will solve my problem

Step 1 - THINK ABOUT IT:

1. What has been a challenge about being home and away from school? Have you missed seeing friends, exploring the school gardens, or chatting with your teacher?

2. Define a problem that your flying machine could solve. You should consider: What will be the function of your flying machine? Will it communicate with your neighbors, spread nature, cheer up family members, or something else? For example, your flying machine might carry a note to a neighbor, or spread seeds to increase food for pollinators in your yard.

3. What materials can be used to make your flying machine strong? Flexible? Will a light material fly better or a heavier one? Will your flying machine need to transport anything? A flying machine that is holding a note for a neighbor for instance would probably need to be light and be able to fly far. One that was designed to distribute seeds might be heavier to support the extra weight and have some method to allow the seeds to fall out. Will you use paper, cardboard, plastic, natural materials from outside or some other thing you find around your house? Once you have thought about what your problem is then you can decide what material might be best.

4. Work within your constraints.

a. You can only use 4 objects found in or around your home to create your flying machine.

b. Your flying machine must solve the problem that you have identified.

Step 2 - LEARN ABOUT IT:

Flying Machine: a vehicle that sustains itself in and propels itself through the air; like an airplane, helicopter, glider, blimp, hot air balloon or kite.

Propel: drive, push, or cause to move in a particular direction, typically forward.

Some different ideas to help you think about possible ways to build your flying machine:

Step 3 - PRACTICE IT:

1. Gather the materials you plan on using for your flying machine. Make sure your materials fit the design constraints. (Seed hint: Dandelions attract pollinators and the fluffy part is the seed!)

2. Explore and test the materials and try to come up with at least 2 versions of a flying machine that will solve your problem. What are some difficulties you expect to encounter when testing your airplane? Do you have to worry about wind, pets, siblings, or weather?

Step 4 - PROJECT:

Now you are ready to create a design plan for your flying machines. Remember, you must make at least 2 different designs. Submit a picture of your design plan to your classroom teacher or Ms. Newport.

This is the first phase of a 3-week project. So, be sure to keep the plans to be ready for next week.

Your design plan must have:

1. A name for your flying machine.

2. The problem/goal that your plane will solve.

3. An illustration of your plane solving the problem.

4. A list of the materials you will use in your design.

Week 2: Build and Test your Flying Machine

Last week you made a design plan where you:

• Selected materials

• Determined your problem

• Planned for solving your problem

OUTCOMES: This week’s focus is on the Engineering Design Process and you will create, try out, and redesign your flying machine. Families, our goal is to provide students the chance to work through the engineering design process. Making mistakes and working out how to solve them is the most important part of that process, not having a perfect finished product..

I can…

• Build a flying machine based on my design plans.

• Test my flying machine/s and collect raw data on my results.

• Analyze my results and redesign my solution to be even better.

• Use the engineering design process to make my flying machine better.

Step 1 - THINK ABOUT IT: Examine last week’s design plan

1. Last week you designed flying machines that will solve a problem and constructed a design plan for your creations. Revisit your design plan and think about how your flying machines will work.

*Remember, the most important part of the engineering design process is to make it better and redesign as you go!*

2. Think about what data you should collect to determine if your flying machines will work. If you’re spreading seeds, do you want to know how many seeds are spread or how far the seeds are spread? If you’re sending a note, do you want to know how far your machine can fly or how accurate the path is? Pick 2 areas to focus on, such as: Did it spread the seeds? What distance did it travel?

Step 2 - LEARN ABOUT IT: Explore ways to build your flying machine

New Vocabulary:

Prototype - The first model of a machine that other versions are copied after.

Raw Data - The first round of information collected from a test.

Engineering Design Process - The engineering design process is a series of steps that engineers follow to come up with a solution to a problem.

1. Build a prototype of your flying machines. Remember, you need to test at least 2 different prototypes of your flying machines to solve your problem. They don’t need to be finished products, you just need to test which of your designs will work the best. See the techniques below, or last week’s examples for how to construct your flying machine if you need inspiration. Your flying machine can be as simple, or elaborate as you like.

2. Set up a way to collect your data on a piece of paper. Will you make tally marks? A bar graph? A list of results? You can use these data collection sheets to record your raw data or create your own.

3. Pick only one of these methods to record your data.

4. Give your data a title. Example: Seeds in the Sky Data, Love Bomb Tally Chart, Friendly Neighbor Bar Graph.

5. Decide how many trials, or times you try your flying machine. Keep in mind that 5-10 is a good number of test flight trials.

Start flying and collect your initial raw data! This data will be part of what you share with your teacher.

Step 3 - TRY IT/MAKE IT BETTER: Use your data to make improvements to your flying machine.

1. Take a look at the data you collected. Are there some changes you need to make right now? For instance, does your flying machine need to fly further to reach your neighbor’s house? Are your seeds getting stuck? Make adjustments, redo your trials, and collect more data! Do this as often as you need to! You may end up with several data collection sheets.

Troubleshooting common flight problems:

• The shape of the wings is very important. Wide wings will help your flying machine glide farther. Smaller wings will help your flying machine fly faster.

• Bending up the back edge of your wing will help control the direction of the flight.

• Pay attention to the “center of gravity.” The center of gravity is where the weight is even on both sides, like when you balance on a seesaw. Moving the center of gravity will affect how your flying machine flies.

• Is the weight of your flying machine too heavy for the wings to support it? Try making it lighter by removing unnecessary parts or replacing parts with lighter materials.

• Try adjusting your arm motion when throwing your flying machine. You want to get it to glide smoothly and gently, straight ahead or in a slight curve.

For more helpful troubleshooting tips on paper airplanes click here & here.

Step 4 - Final Product ASSESSMENT: Submit data collection sheets and a photograph/drawing of the final flying machine you built.

1. Compile all of your raw data and submit it to your teacher. Make sure to include all of your data collections sheets.

Below are some examples using the templates attached.

Week 3: Display your data

Last week you tested your design plan where you:

• Made your prototypes

• Tested your prototypes and collected data

• Made your final flying machine and collected data

OUTCOMES: This week’s focus is on converting the raw data you collected on your data sheets into an artistic product, or piece of work. You may continue to redesign and test your flying machine if you would like to.

I can…

Send my flying machine out to complete its task.

Create a key to explain how to read my data visualization.

Present the data I collected in a visually pleasing manner.

Step 1 - THINK ABOUT IT:

1. Last week you were able to test your flying machines and collect data on how effective they were. This week we are going to work with your raw data in an artful way.

2. How can you present the data you’ve collected to your boss at Transformative Turtle Transportation and Aviation Inc. in a way that will get them excited about your flying machine?

Step 2 - LEARN ABOUT IT:

Vocabulary:

Data Visualization - the practice of changing data into pictures or images

Symbol - a line, shape, color, or simple picture that represents something else.

Key - a guide that identifies symbols

Variable - a topic or amount that can change or vary

Data point - a single fact or piece of information

Watch the slideshow below on data visualization to learn how to create your own.

1. Data Visualization has been used for thousands of years.

2. Data Visualizations can be either 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional.

Step 3 - TRY IT: Create a data visualization using a model

Look at this data collected on the weather and how someone felt on each given day. The data visualization technique and key has already been made for you. Practice data visualization by completing the rest of the data visualization here.

3. Test out different data visualization techniques, decide on what will best represent your data. Remember, with your data visualization you want to start by creating symbols and a key. Don’t forget to include a title.

Step 4 - Final Product ASSESSMENT: Submit data visualization

1. Gather the data sheets you created last week and decide how you want to present your data visualization.

2. What will be most impressive to your bosses at Transformative Turtle Transportation and Aviation Inc.? What works well together? Did you see a large amount of growth in any area?

• Kindergarten & 1st Grade: You must use the data from 2 of your data collection sheets.

2nd & 3rd Grade - You must use the data from three or more of your data collection sheets.

4. Compile the raw data from your data collection sheets into a data visualization image.

Your Data Visualization should include:

2. • A title

   • A key

   • Symbols

   • An image

5. Submit your finished work to your teacher, Mrs. Newport and retain a copy at home.

3a. Optional Extension:

Create a presentation for your company with your finished flying machine and data visualization.