Super Science Challenges
Participants work in teams to design, create and test a variety of items to solve challenging science and engineering problems.
Participants will work in groups to solve challenges and realize the importance of science in everyday life. Challenges include moving a ping-pong ball from one cup to another without using their hands, building a bridge out of a single piece of paper to hold as many pennies as possible, designing a container to protect an egg when dropped, modifying paper rotors to increase accuracy and building a roller coaster that has a ramp and one loop out of simple materials. If time is available, they will test their problem solving skills with a variety of brain teasers.
What You Need
Physical Requirements
- The introduction and wrap-up will be done as a full group.
- For activities 1, 4, and 5, you will need empty floor space for participants to work.
- Activities 2, 3 and 6 will need table space for groups to work.
- Activity 3 requires a space to test the ‘egg drop’.
Activity 1: Ping Pong Challenge
- Ping pong balls (3)
- Plastic cups (2)
- Masking tape
- Straws (~35)
- Paper clips (~35)
- Stapler
- String
- Film canisters with lid (2)
- Fulcrum (2)
- Ping Pong Challenge Task Card
Activity 2: Penny Challenge
- Container of pennies (~150 pennies)
- Blocks of wood or Styrofoam (2)
- Sheets of 8 ½ x 11 paper (~50)
- Masking tape
- Penny Challenge Task Card
Activity 3: Egg Drop Challenge
- Eggs (1-2 per group)
- Miscellaneous containers (i.e. cups, paper plates, etc..) (8)
- Large bag of packing materials (i.e. Styrofoam, cotton balls, sponges, bubble wrap, shredded paper, etc…).
- Egg Drop Challenge Task Card
- Restrictions Card
Activity 4: Rotor Challenge
- Target
- Rotor patterns (1 per participant)
- Scissors (2)
- Pencils (2)
- Paper clips (~50)
- Rotor Data Sheet (1 per participant)
- Rotor Challenge Task Card
Activity 5: Roller Coaster Challenge
- Marbles (3)
- Copper pipe foam insulation, cut in half OR poster board strips (2 per group)
- Pipe cleaners (~50)
- Straws (~50)
- Masking tape
- Paper clips (~50)
- Roller Coaster Challenge Task Card
Activity 6: Brain Teasers
- Pencils (4)
- Scissors (2)
- Scrap paper (~50)
- Brain Teaser Task Cards
Refer to pages 25 and 26 of the Super Science Challenges manual for notes on restocking the materials for this workshop.
Guide:
Safety Notes
Ensure that you have supplies to clean up broken eggs, such as paper towels and hand sanitizer. Make sure students wash their hands after handling the egg.
What To Do
Activity Prep
- Print Rotor Patterns and Rotor Data Sheets.
- Before the workshop starts, write Today’s Objectives on the classroom board.
Introduction
- Go through Today’s Objectives:
- Demonstrate why it is important to assume nothing by going through the problems listed on page 12-13 of the Super Science Challenges manual.
- Use an analogy (such as __+__= 10) to show that there are often many solutions to any problem.
- Show students some of the supplies for today’s workshop; they will learn that we do not always need a lab or expensive equipment to do science.
- Tell them that the team approach to problem solving is often the best approach because everyone has a unique perspective.
- Ask participants to think about what happened as soon as they woke up this morning and explain how we use science everyday (i.e. alarm clocks, eating breakfast, transportation to school, etc.…)
- Say that they will hopefully discover that science is fun after today’s workshop!
Activity 1: Ping Pong Challenge
- Set up the challenge on the floor of the room by making two lines spaced 50-90cm apart using masking tape. Place 3 ping-pong balls in a cup on one side of the boundary line and an empty cup on the other side.
- Place other materials (stapler, masking tape, straws, etc…) out for participants to use.
- Working in pairs, participants will move each of the ping-pong balls from one cup to the other without touching the balls with their hands and without any part of their body crossing the boundary lines.
Activity 2: Penny Challenge
- On a desk or table, set two pieces of wood or Styrofoam approximately 15-20 cm apart. Place tape underneath the blocks to mark where they should sit so students know where to put them if they move.
- Have two piles of scrap paper and two containers of pennies available.
- Participants will work in groups of 3-4 to complete this challenge.
- They will have to get as many pennies as possible to fit on one piece of paper. The pennies must rest on the paper only, not the blocks.
- Participants may assume that they cannot fold or cut the paper- they can!
Activity 3: Egg Drop Challenge
- Set up packing materials, containers and extra materials around the classroom. If there is time, have participants design their prototype with paper and pencils first, then construct their container.
- They will work in groups to create a container that will protect an egg while being dropped from two metres.
- Restrictions on their design includes,
- They can only choose two containers.
- They can only choose one type of packing material.
- They can use as many extra materials as they need.
- Participants will test their container by dropping at a designated height.
Activity 4: Rotor Challenge
- Tape the target to the floor and set out rotor patterns, scissors, paper clips, pencils and Rotor Worksheets.
- Participants can work in pairs (or by themselves) to solve this challenge.
- They will make two rotors using the patterns provided.
- They will test the rotors for accuracy by dropping them onto the target.
- They will record their results in the Rotor Worksheets.
- Participants will modify their rotor by adding paper clips and test again.
- They will determine which rotor design is the best and why.
Activity 5: Roller Coaster Challenge
- Have copper pipe foam insulation (cut in half) or poster board paper and other materials ready for the participants to use.
- Using the poster board pieces and the other materials provided, they will build a roller coaster that has a ramp and one loop.
- The challenge is to get the marble to travel down the ramp, around the loop and stop safely at the very end of the track.
Activity 6: Brain Teasers
- If participants finish any challenge early, they can solve the brain teasers or this can be a separate station.
- Have scrap paper and pencils available.
Wrap-up
- Go through each of the stations and discuss some solutions to the problems.
- Discuss possible careers related to the topics covered and what they would need to do (schooling, experience, etc…) to get into those careers.
Discovery
Activity 1: Ping-Pong Challenge
This challenge has two parts: create a device to move the ping-pong balls out of the cup and create a path that moves the ping-pong ball across the floor and into another cup. One way to solve this challenge is to create a mechanism that lifts and tilts the cup onto a track that uses the force of gravity to move the ball from one up to another.
Activity 2: Penny Challenge
The amount of pennies that the paper bridge can support can be increased by folding the piece of paper into stronger shapes. One way to build the bridge is to fold the paper into a cylinder with the ends tapered at the end (like a Holiday Cracker) or fold the paper in the shape of a fan. Both methods strengthen the paper and disperse the force of the pennies throughout the structure.
Activity 3: Egg Drop Challenge
This problem can be approached in a few ways. The speed that the egg is falling can be decreased by increasing air resistance (i.e. parachute). Packing materials can be added to provide a cushion to absorb the shock of landing. Lastly, a container can be used to hold the egg so that it lands on either end of the eggshell (the strongest point). Successful designs will likely take most or all of the above considerations into account.
Activity 4: Rotor Challenge
As the force of gravity pulls the rotor towards the ground, air resistance pushes on the two blades (folded top of the rotor), causing it to spin. The rotor with the smaller blades is likely to be the most accurate as there is less surface area for the air resistance to act upon. Another way to increase accuracy is to increase the weight of the rotor by adding paper clips.
Activity 4: Roller Coaster Challenge
The roller coaster needs to start at a high height in order for the marble to have enough energy (via gravity- potential energy) to make the loop and finish the track (via motion- kinetic energy). The marble has to be moving fast enough to overcome the force of friction and air resistance, which slows the marble down. Additionally, the marble has to have enough centripetal force (force that moves things in a circular path) when entering the loop to overcome the force of gravity and complete the loop. Participants will likely have to adjust their roller coaster often in order to find the right balance of forces.
Teamwork is essential to solving engineering, science and math problems. There are often many different ways to solve problems and no solution is necessarily more right than another. Every unique perspective increases the chance of figuring out the best solution for a problem.
- In Activity 1: Ping-Pong Challenge, you can either put the cup with the ping-pong balls in it on the far side so participants have to create a device to bring the ping-pong balls back towards them or put the cup with the ping-pong balls close to them, so they have to create a device to carry the ping-pong balls across to the other cup.
- To make Activity 2: Penny Challenge more interesting, you can keep a running total of how many pennies each group has fit on their paper. They can even make up a creative name for their group.
- In Activity 3: Egg Drop Challenge, you can either have the participants drop their eggs once they are finished constructing their container OR have a drop-off with all the teams at the end of the workshop. If you are concerned about participant behaviour, you, or the teacher, can drop the egg instead of the students.
- An alternative for Activity 3: Egg Drop Challenge is to use a plastic egg filled with water or confetti.
Web
Macaulay, D. (1988). The Way Things Work. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 0-395-42857-2
Attachments
What's Happening?
Activity 1: Ping-Pong Challenge
This challenge has two parts: create a device to move the ping-pong balls out of the cup and create a path that moves the ping-pong ball across the floor and into another cup. One way to solve this challenge is to create a mechanism that lifts and tilts the cup onto a track that uses the force of gravity to move the ball from one up to another.
Activity 2: Penny Challenge
The amount of pennies that the paper bridge can support can be increased by folding the piece of paper into stronger shapes. One way to build the bridge is to fold the paper into a cylinder with the ends tapered at the end (like a Holiday Cracker) or fold the paper in the shape of a fan. Both methods strengthen the paper and disperse the force of the pennies throughout the structure.
Activity 3: Egg Drop Challenge
This problem can be approached in a few ways. The speed that the egg is falling can be decreased by increasing air resistance (i.e. parachute). Packing materials can be added to provide a cushion to absorb the shock of landing. Lastly, a container can be used to hold the egg so that it lands on either end of the eggshell (the strongest point). Successful designs will likely take most or all of the above considerations into account.
Activity 4: Rotor Challenge
As the force of gravity pulls the rotor towards the ground, air resistance pushes on the two blades (folded top of the rotor), causing it to spin. The rotor with the smaller blades is likely to be the most accurate as there is less surface area for the air resistance to act upon. Another way to increase accuracy is to increase the weight of the rotor by adding paper clips.
Activity 4: Roller Coaster Challenge
The roller coaster needs to start at a high height in order for the marble to have enough energy (via gravity- potential energy) to make the loop and finish the track (via motion- kinetic energy). The marble has to be moving fast enough to overcome the force of friction and air resistance, which slows the marble down. Additionally, the marble has to have enough centripetal force (force that moves things in a circular path) when entering the loop to overcome the force of gravity and complete the loop. Participants will likely have to adjust their roller coaster often in order to find the right balance of forces.
Why Does it Matter?
Teamwork is essential to solving engineering, science and math problems. There are often many different ways to solve problems and no solution is necessarily more right than another. Every unique perspective increases the chance of figuring out the best solution for a problem.
Investigate Further
- In Activity 1: Ping-Pong Challenge, you can either put the cup with the ping-pong balls in it on the far side so participants have to create a device to bring the ping-pong balls back towards them or put the cup with the ping-pong balls close to them, so they have to create a device to carry the ping-pong balls across to the other cup.
- To make Activity 2: Penny Challenge more interesting, you can keep a running total of how many pennies each group has fit on their paper. They can even make up a creative name for their group.
- In Activity 3: Egg Drop Challenge, you can either have the participants drop their eggs once they are finished constructing their container OR have a drop-off with all the teams at the end of the workshop. If you are concerned about participant behaviour, you, or the teacher, can drop the egg instead of the students.
- An alternative for Activity 3: Egg Drop Challenge is to use a plastic egg filled with water or confetti.
Resources
Web
Macaulay, D. (1988). The Way Things Work. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 0-395-42857-2
