The assignment:
Design an outreach
activity that will teach children some fundamental of engineering.
Our Project:
Soil compaction:
The different stages:
First in-class testing of prototypes: We brought in the first prototype of our project for the
other members of our class tested it out. We discovered that we needed more base materials to test,
and better materials other than legos to build a structure out of. We also decided we needed
to use smaller, uniform containers for each base material.
Second in-class testing of prototypes: Professor Finger brought in a child to test the prototypes. Gabe told us he liked our project. The worksheet was good, but we could modify the project easily for different ages by the building materials we used.
Take Our Daughters to Work Day: We had a few girls try our project. We discovered problems with the glue we were using, but the new craft sticks worked well. Also, it may be a good idea to have a time limit on the amount of time to build the structure.
Meeting of the Minds: Each project was represented in Conan Room. Most of the people who walked around were adults, and we explained the concept of our project but had no actual users.
See the pictures
What I learned:
Testing of prototypes helps to make the project better.
Not all kids have the same types of tastes with what they want to do.
People always hope that soil is crushed oreos.