My goals and strategies: Get out of timer watching mode, (total deer-in-the-headlights mode) build something with triangles, build something that can stand upright and maybe hold marbles in the allotted time frame. My strategy was to form a basic picture in my head and then try to make it real.
Results: 6 left over straws, a tower that was 11 inches to the marble platform, platform that could easily hold 7 marbles, possibly more but I didn't have any. No comments :)
Score: 6 x (11-5)6^7 = 1,679,616
When I left my office, the tower was still standing but had fallen over by the time I returned this morning. It had come apart at one of the corner joints that I hadn't taped well. I also hadn't braced it properly at the bottom so the base was made out of squares rather than rectangles. I would definitely change that aspect in the future. The squares deformed just like in our lecture! Hands-on learning! I was really curious to know how long my structure actually stood and wondered if the amount of time a structure lasts could be factored into the score. Next time: more triangles!
The one thing that I would do again is make a tape platform to put the marbles on. I taped it just a little bit loosely and it held the marbles well without them rolling off. It was also large enough to hold a lot of marbles as well to and I would have liked to have explored that some more.
As usual my brain was full when I left Blackboard last night! As a teacher, I really love that these lessons and concepts are recursive in the fact that they go back and forth between adult, real-world, applications and real-world applications with children of all ages. Comparing the Engineering Design Cycle with the Science Learning Cycle and even with the Writing process helped me create an in-road in my head to help students see how connected all the things we do are. When Lori talked about how engineering students really are not into the communication part of their learning, I was surprised because the writing process and the engineering design process are so similar that it seems counter-intuitive to not be good at both processes. I know I'll be using that Design Cycle slide to help make those connections with students.
Nice correlation with the engineering design cycle and writing... they are very similar!
ReplyDeleteSounds like your tower could have held more marbles, in the engineering world we would say your tower had a large factor of safety - it could hold more weight than required in the design criteria. How much "overdesign" is needed to provide a level of safety in a structure is a consideration in just about every engineering project that requires quite a bit of judgement. For example, a roof is designed to withstand certain loads - wind, rain, and snow loads. Let's say it was designed to withstand 2 feet of snow, but what about the situation where we have 2 feet of snow and then 2 inches of rain on top of that? "Overdesign" requires more materials (and more cost) - but public safety is of utmost importance. How do you answer the question - how much is too much?
One thing that I can share from my engineering / programming / systems admin experience is that communication is incredibly important - and will give students the edge in the field once they graduate.
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