Problem Solving
Problem Sovling activites allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of the engineering design process and teambuilding skills. Students are challenged weekly with a new problem that they must come up with the best possible solution. From brainstorming and sketching thumbnail ideas, to constructing and analying their design, students create very innovative solutions.
The Design Process

Puff Cars - Design a vehicle that can go the furthest distance with one puff of air.
Raft Design - Design a floatation device that can carry the most amount of weight (pennies).
Marble Maze - Design a maze that will allow a marble to travel from A to B in the longest time possible.
Balloon Car - Design a balloon powered race car that will travel the furthest distance.
Helping Hands - Design and build a device that lets you grab different objects and drop them into a container that's at least two feet away.
Suspension Bridge - Design a suspension bridge that will hold the most weight.
Paper Towers - Construct the tallest tower from 2 sheets of newspaper and 12 " of masking tape.
Spaghetti Marshmallow Tower - Using only spaghetti and marshmallows, design and build the tallest tower possible that will stand for at least 30 seconds.
Touchdown - Build a shock-absorbing spacecraft that will protect two “astronauts” when they land.
Parachute - Design a parachute that will bring a plastic egg safely to the ground as slow as possible without breaking. i
Earthquake Tower - Design a tower that can hold a Ping-Pong ball at least 6 inches off the table while withstanding earthquake seismic waves. (Seismic Tester Required)
Zip Line- Design a device that can carry marbles from the top of a zip line string to the bottom in four seconds or less.
Ping Pong Launcher- Design a catapult that will launch a ping pong ball the furthest distance in a straight line.
 
Note Card Towers - Construct the tallest tower from 100 notecards.
 
Straw Towers - Design a tower from straws, paper clips, and masking tape that can hold a certain weight.

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