Lunar Landers allows students to experiment with the engineering design process while learning about force and motion.
Materials (per team):
- 8 straws
- 3 index cards (4x6)
- 1 3oz cup
- 3 rubber bands
- 10 small marshmallows
- 2 large marshmallows
"Astronauts" (large marshmallows) are placed in their "cabin" (3oz cup) and are dropped from a pre-determined height. Students must use the other provided supplies to cushion their landing and cause the astronauts to remain in the cabin. (Think about this as a version of an Egg Drop challenge.)
Here are the rules:
- No other items maybe inside the cabin with the astronauts
- The cabin may not have any type of lid, covering, or roof that intersects the vertical plane of the cup rim
- The astronauts may not be stuck together or stuck to the cabin
As students progress through the challenge, they test their designs and note the status of the astronauts. Students should strive for a design in which both astronauts stay in the cup.
When it is time to test designs, students will drop their landers from a height of 2 feet. The drop height can be increased for any additional rounds to determine the best design.
So, what did we learn?
National Science Standards: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry, understanding about scientific inquiry, properties of objects and materials, position and motion of objects, motions and forces, transfer of energy, abilities of technological design, understanding science and technology, science as a human endeavor.
NCTM Standards: Apply appropriate techniques, tools, and formulas to determine measurements, Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them, develop and evaluate inferences and predictions that are based on data, build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving, Solve problems that arise in mathematics and other contexts, Apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems, create and use representations to organize, record, and communicate mathematical ideas.
Other STEM skills: Communication, critical thinking, problem solving, observation, collaboration, data recording, data analysis, teamwork
