Case 2: After-School STEM Activity

By: Michael Batta, Lindsey Wietlisbach, and Jonathan Woessner

Overview of
Lesson:

In this lesson, students will be learning about basic engineering design

principles. They will use paper, masking tape, and scissors to building
the tallest possible paper tower that can hold and support a tennis ball.
After students complete the activity, they will be assessed by the
structural stability of the paper tower and how tall the tower is.

Description of
Learners,
Learning
Environment,
Intended
Learning
Goals, and
Lesson Content:

There will be about 15-20 eighth grade students in one of Purdue

University campus reserved large classroom for STEM. The students
will be learning about structures and the engineering design process
through a construction challenge. They will learn about how criteria and
constraints drive the requirements for a design. This activity will be
taking place after school hours. The technology availability is fairly high.
The large room has several round tables with a lot of room to work. Each
student has a college mentor or buddy and they will be paired up with
another student and their buddy and that group will fill up one table (or
however many groups can easily fit at a table). The college mentors are
able to give advice to the students, but they may not physically help in
building their tower. The CMFK students are considered at-risk and
thus this program is partly intended to inspire them and help them to
achieve greater things in the classroom.
This lesson was inspired by a lesson Jon experienced in his 8th grade
shop class. In it, students were instructed to sketch out a plan for their
tower, then given instructor approval to construct it. All of the towers
were tested and an award given to the most successful group. We
decided to expand upon this by teaching some structures engineering and
going more in depth on the engineering design process.

Learning
Objectives:

Given background information on structural criteria and constraints as

well as instruction on the engineering design process, students will utilize
the engineering design process to design a structure that will support the
weight of a tennis ball.

Standards:

Standards Taken from the Indiana DOE Engineering website.

IED 1.1 Describe and apply problem solving techniques
IED 1.4 Apply and adapt the design loop as a guide in creating a
solution
IED 4.6 Collaborate on various projects by working in design
teams
IED 6.1 Communicate conceptual ideas through written and
verbal formats
IED 7.10 Demonstrate thoughtful revision and refinement of
original design solutions based upon reflection, critique, practice,
and research

Required
Materials:

Procedures:

1. Students will be broken up into pairs, and their mentors should

join them.
2. A brief (around 5 minutes) presentation on the engineering design
process will be given. Some basic information about criteria for a
tower will be given as well.
3. After this introduction, the design challenge will be explained:
a. Each group will be given 12 sheets of paper, 2 feet of
masking tape, and a pair of scissors.
b. Groups will be instructed to design and build the tallest
structure they can that will support a tennis ball.
c. Students should sketch their ideas out on paper first, and
come to a consensus within their pair about what their
final design will look like before proceeding to
build. Some prototyping can be allowed at this point, it
will be up to the group mentor to insure that students keep
within the spirit of the design phase.
d. Mentors will help with any questions, guide the students
when needed, and insure groups follow the rules. Mentors
will also insure students complete some sort of planning
sketch before diving into the building portion of the
challenge.
e. Towers will be evaluated by the distance between the
ground surface and the bottom of the ball.

12 pieces of paper per group

2 feet of tape per group
1 tennis ball
1 tape measure
Scissors for each group

4. After the criteria, constraints, and rules have been explained,

groups will have about 15 minutes to design and build their
tower.
5. After students have built their towers, a set of judges will come
around to test each one. Note that some towers may collapse
when tested; this is to be expected. Remind students that
mistakes are an important part of learning during an engineering
challenge.
6. Briefly discuss the results of the first round of testing. Ask the
students what worked, and what didnt work. Have them discuss
improvements to their designs with themselves and their mentors.
7. Hand out a new set of 12 sheets of paper and 2 feet of masking
tape to each group. They will have another 10-15 minutes to
either rebuild or repair a second iteration of their tower. The
mentors should insure that their group is using resources fairly,
i.e. not reusing the old towers paper and the new paper to gain a
materials advantage.
8. Retest each group, and discuss how each group improved. It is
ok if some of the less successful groups emulate the more
successful designs the second time around. Remember that
sharing learning is also a vital practice of real engineers, and aids
in student learning.
Assessment:

References and
References
Materials:

Students will be evaluated based on demonstration of their use of the

engineering design process, such as their sketches and team
collaboration. Their towers will be assessed by measured height, from
the floor (or table) to the bottom of the tennis ball.

Hands-on Activity: Newspaper Tower. (n.d.). Retrieved March

30, 2015, from
https://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=collecti
on/duk_/activities/duk_tower_tech_act/duk_tower_tech_act.xml
Indiana Department of Education Academic Standards Course
Framework, Introduction to Engineering Design. (n.d.). Retrieved
March 30, 2015, from
http://www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/standards/cteengineering/cf-eng-intro_to_engineering_design_non_pltw_8-2213.pdf

Inspiration for our lesson:

Our lesson was inspired by a lesson Jon experienced as a student in middle school, where
he built a tower with the given constraints. That lesson was just a side activity, just
something to fill the last day of class for the year, but we decided to take this activity and

make it the application for further learning. We then searched online for some inspiration
and ideas to expand our project, and settled on a lesson from TeachEngineering.org. Their
activity involved building towers to withstand wind-loads, and included learning about
engineering techniques involved in buildings. While we initially went this route, we decided
to focus more heavily on teaching and practicing the engineering design process
instead. This would be more readily understood by the age group we were teaching to, as
well as complementing our chosen activity and lesson time constraints. Had we been given
more time, it would be feasible to do a more science oriented unit involving strength of
materials, geometric design, and a more comprehensive design challenge. We felt that this
design challenge activity was appropriate for the age group, and would be a great primer to
the technology and engineering field of design. The activity is also simple, competitive, and
most of all, fun.
Slides in our PowerPoint presentation:

By: Jonathan Woessner, Michael Batta, and Lindsey Wietlisbach

Load - The weight or force that is applied to a support or structure

Remember, this includes the weight of the structure itself! Bridges have to support their own

weight as well as the weight of the cars traveling over them.

Stability - the ability of a structure to resist forces that would otherwise topple it
Towers should support their vertical loads, as well as any horizontal ones like wind.

Buckling - When a support member fails (breaks) due to bending at some point

along its length.

Examples:

 Which shape do you think would be able to hold the most weight before breaking

or changing shape?

Most trusses have a triangular shape due to this fact!

The Process

Todays Focus
Identify
the
Problem

Test and
Evaluate

Ideate
Imagine/
Ideate/
Brainstorm

Test and
Evaluate

Focus on clarifying
and communicating
your idea through
sketching. Plan out
your design, then
implement it.

Decide
and Build

Needed:

Ask:

Did my tower
perform as
expected? How
does our tower
compare to others
in height? How can I
incorporate what
Ive learned to
make a new tower,
even better than
this one?

Before You Start:

12 Sheets of Paper

Collaborate with your group members!

2 feet of tape

Draft your design with the help of your

Scissors
Tape Measure
Tennis ball

Helpful Advice:

mentors!

Get the OK from the mentors on the

design!

Start constructing your tower and have

fun!

Handle your materials carefully, each

bend or tear made by accident is a

potential place for your tower to
buckle later on.
A wide base lends stability to your
tower.

Once you are done!

Ask your mentor to test your design!
Does it work?
If not try again!