Fling Machine AWS
Project - 1.1a Instant Design Challenge (“Fling Machine”) Name _________________________________________
Period __________
Purpose: To practice the design process and develop team norms through constructing a “Fling Machine” Challenge: Make a cotton ball catapult using ONLY these materials that projects a cotton ball a minimum of 20 inches. Materials: § § § § §
2 Cotton Balls 1 Plastic Cup 2 Paper Clip 2 Straws 1 Plastic Spoon
§ § § § §
1 Balloon 2 Rubber Bands 2 Coffee Stir Sticks 2 Craft Sticks 12 inches masking tape
Procedure: Using only the materials provided, design and build a device to launch a cotton ball and send it as far as possible. A. Your team will have 15 minutes to devise a solution and document the solution both in writing and in graphical form with a drawing. B. Your team will have 5 minutes to build your solution. C. Your team will have 5 minutes to test your solution. Record the distance traveled by the cotton ball (to the nearest quarter inch) for at least ten attempts. Trial Chart Trial
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Distance D. Finally, your team will have one attempt to demonstrate your solution. Official Distance Traveled: ________________ in E. Use the design process visual below and document each step in your engineering notebook as you complete this design challenge. Get this checked by Mr. Foley before you move on to the Conclusion Questions.
Conclusion: Analyze the cotton ball travel distance data that you collected. A. Record the travel distances of the cotton ball that you measured during the testing phase below and create a dot plot of your data.
B. Create a bar graph (see sample) of your data using ten (10) class intervals.
C. Calculate the mean, range of the travel distances of the cotton ball. (Use info from your Trial Chart) Mean (Average) ___________________
Range _____________________
D. Give a range of travel distances within which you would predict that 95% of all cotton balls launched with your device would fall. For example, you might predict that 95% of the cotton balls that you launch would travel between 2.25 ft and 3.00 ft. Justify your answer. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ E. If you had the opportunity to optimize your design, how would you increase the distance that the cotton ball moves? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ F. How could you improve the effectiveness of your team? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________
Period __________
Purpose: To practice the design process and develop team norms through constructing a “Fling Machine” Challenge: Make a cotton ball catapult using ONLY these materials that projects a cotton ball a minimum of 20 inches. Materials: § § § § §
2 Cotton Balls 1 Plastic Cup 2 Paper Clip 2 Straws 1 Plastic Spoon
§ § § § §
1 Balloon 2 Rubber Bands 2 Coffee Stir Sticks 2 Craft Sticks 12 inches masking tape
Procedure: Using only the materials provided, design and build a device to launch a cotton ball and send it as far as possible. A. Your team will have 15 minutes to devise a solution and document the solution both in writing and in graphical form with a drawing. B. Your team will have 5 minutes to build your solution. C. Your team will have 5 minutes to test your solution. Record the distance traveled by the cotton ball (to the nearest quarter inch) for at least ten attempts. Trial Chart Trial
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Distance D. Finally, your team will have one attempt to demonstrate your solution. Official Distance Traveled: ________________ in E. Use the design process visual below and document each step in your engineering notebook as you complete this design challenge. Get this checked by Mr. Foley before you move on to the Conclusion Questions.
Conclusion: Analyze the cotton ball travel distance data that you collected. A. Record the travel distances of the cotton ball that you measured during the testing phase below and create a dot plot of your data.
B. Create a bar graph (see sample) of your data using ten (10) class intervals.
C. Calculate the mean, range of the travel distances of the cotton ball. (Use info from your Trial Chart) Mean (Average) ___________________
Range _____________________
D. Give a range of travel distances within which you would predict that 95% of all cotton balls launched with your device would fall. For example, you might predict that 95% of the cotton balls that you launch would travel between 2.25 ft and 3.00 ft. Justify your answer. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ E. If you had the opportunity to optimize your design, how would you increase the distance that the cotton ball moves? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ F. How could you improve the effectiveness of your team? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________
