3. The Tech Museum's Design Challenge
Learning approach engages students in the
design process to solve a relevant, real-
world problem. Students reinforce their
science, mathematics, social studies, and
language arts content knowledge, through
an open-ended design process that results
in an original, team-driven solution.
Students take responsibility for assessing
their own progress and incorporate peer
feedback as they conceptualize and
redesign their projects.
4. Goals of Design Challenge Learning
• Students start thinking creatively.
• Students learn to problem solve.
• Outcomes (projects) are innovative.
• Failure is a big part of the process and students learn to
deal with failure and how to overcome.
• Students have to learn to collaborate and work
together.
• Students learn to take
risks.
Through this try, fail, learn
approach, students develop
skills and habits of mind of
Silicon Valley innovators.
5. Real World Problems:
• Create a solution to help earthquake
survivors! After an earthquake severely
damages a bridge, your device will reach
and rescue a person stranded on the
bridge.
• Marine scientists are asking The Tech
Challenge’s young engineers to help them clean the seas. Your team’s
challenge is to design and build a device that can collect trash from the
ocean without harming marine life.
• Create a device to deliver water to a tank located in a village on a hill above
the river. There is no electricity in the village; only the flow of the river can
be used to generate power.
• Create a device that can deliver a payload of up to 6 geological instruments
to the top of the volcano.
• Design, build and operate an unmanned device that can survive a 12 -foot
drop into a Martian crater and then successfully exit the crater by ascending
a 6-foot crater wall.
7. CIRCLE OF PONG
Sometimes it is safe to
keep your distance.
Imagine if you had to
deposit a small piece of
monitoring equipment into
a lava pit that is located in
the middle of an island.
How would you do it?
8. What is the Problem:
• What is the limits?
• How can you solve it?
The Challenge:
Design a Device that will deposit sensitive monitoring equipment (a ping-pong ball) into a
Lava Pit (paper cup) that is located in the middle of and Island (the purple tablecloth
folded or arranged into a large circle).
Constraints:
• Each team member must be actively involved in the deployment and operation of the
device
• The sensitive Monitoring equipment must start outside the Island and must come to rest
inside the Lava Pit - purple tablecloth.
• Team members may not touch the sensitive monitoring equipment, except to place it in
the device prior to deployment.
• At no time may any team member reach or extend any part of his/her body into the
imaginary cylinder that extends above lava pit - (purple table cloth).
• You may use only those items/materials that your materials kit provides.
• You may not destroy, modify, or dramatically change the sensitive monitoring equipment.
• Your team has 30 minutes to develop, build, and test your device prototype.
9. Explore:
• Find out what others have done
• Gather materials and play with them
Materials Kit: Per Team of 4-6 people
10 cm masking tape
8 large paperclips
40 cm string
3 twisty ties
6 rubber bands
1 small short plastic
solo cup
1 8 ½ X 11 inch sheet of scratch paper
1 small bag (containing all other items)
1 straw (acting as a tape dispenser)
10. Design:
• Think of lots of Ideas
• Pick one and make a plan
• Make a drawing of a model Be visual: map it!
Encourage wild ideas
Defer judgment
Stay focused on topic
Build on the ideas of
others
Listen to 1 person at a
time
Go for quantity
11. Create:
• Use your plan to build your idea
Design Constraints
Select materials:
think creatively
Experiment with a design
Record your choices
Document your observations
and results
Repeat!
12. Try It Out:
• Test your Idea
Remember the Lava Pit (tablecloth) is a hot area and we don’t
want any burning flesh or singed hair
Your device may FAIL!
• Failure, however, can be
transformed into a
learning experience that
actually improves your
child's ability to succeed
in the future. As Henry
Ford once said, "Failure is
only the opportunity to
begin again more
intelligently."
13. How can we help turn their student’s failure into a lesson in success?
Help the student identify the emotions she/he feels and express those in an acceptable
way. When your student is not successful, whether in the classroom or on the ball field, we
should be available to help them work through the emotions.
Give him/her an opportunity to talk about why they think things didn't go the way they
wanted or expected them to go. Even youngsters can express their feelings, and one of the
best things we can do is listen.
Let your students know that winning isn't the most important thing. Give as much praise
for his effort and his attitude as you do for a winning outcome.
Talk to your student about his strengths--the things that you observe as his positive
traits. Conversations such as this can help build self-esteem in even a very young child.
Keep your expectations for your students reasonable and realistic. Don't expect your
eight year old to master a piano piece by Beethoven in two days, just because another student
can.
Remember that your student watches how you respond to failures in your own life. It's
okay to share your disappointment and important to show them how you learn from the
experience.
14. Make it Better
• Think about how your design can be
approved.
• Modify your design and try again.
15. Spend the next 20 minutes using to engineering design
process to create your device.
Spend the next 10 minutes testing your device for the
group.
• Don’t forget to test and redesign
• Teams will exhibit their device, share with the group their design
decisions (what tradeoffs they made, what materials they chose,
what worked/didn’t work etc), and then demonstrate their device.
16. A signature program of The Tech Museum of Innovation, The Tech Challenge is
an annual team design challenge for students in grades 5-12 that introduces and
reinforces the science and engineering design process with a hands-on project
geared to solving a real-world problem.
• Open to students in grades 5-12.
• 3 grade levels: Elementary: 5-6; Middle School: 7-8; High School: 9-12.
• Participants collaborate in teams of 2 to 6 people.
• Registration fees are only $50 for the entire team.
• Fees waived for Title I schools/
after-school programs.
• Solutions can be created with
common, low-cost materials.
• There are no pre-qualifying
conditions to enter.
• Special needs students are
encouraged.
The Tech Challenge
