By Amy Cowen
on October 18, 2021 12:00 PM
Obstacle high school students to think like engineers and design, build, and test their own solutions to among these totally free engineering difficulties.
11 Engineering Challenges for High School Students!
Tallest Paper Tower Challenge for Grades 9-12: building a tower from paper and tape may sound easy, but discovering the right balance in between height and stability requires screening and innovation. The challenge is to develop the tallest paper tower that is sturdy enough to support an unopened can of food for at least sixty seconds. (This was the 2021 Fluor Challenge! Learn more about other Fluor Challenge jobs.).
Zero-Energy Housing: explore passive solar heating and how variables like insulation, window placement, thermal mass, and surface area colors contribute to the efficiency of passive solar heating as an alternative to using non-renewable energy sources for heating. The challenge is to build model houses that use passive solar heating and result in measurable thermal gains in screening.
Tallest Tower: 2021 Fluor Engineering Challenge.
Engineering style difficulties are a fantastic way to fire up student interest in STEM. When students tackle an engineering style difficulty, they are encouraged to brainstorm, design, build, test, problem solve, fix, tinker, innovate, and iterate.
The Engineering Design Process: An Eggstronaut Mission.
Style a Delayed-Release Tablet: utilize different products to create a tablet that launches 3 various colors, each at a predetermined time, after the tablet is submerged in water. The challenge is to discover a way to make sure the appropriate timing of the release of each color.
Build an Impossible Wind-Powered Car: explore the physics behind this “difficult” idea and then try out developing a wind-powered vehicle that can take a trip downwind faster than the wind.
Build a Paper Roller Coaster: check out kinetic and prospective energy while designing and building a paper roller coaster. The difficulty is to include a loop and have a marble be able to effectively go from the start of the track to the end. (Note: See also 12 Lessons and activities to Teach Potential and Kinetic Energy.).
See the Engineering Design Process in Action.
The 11 engineering design obstacles listed below deal high school trainees a mix of intricacy, real-world science, and problem solving. As they develop options, they will utilize the engineering design procedure to innovate, build, troubleshoot, and iterate. A number of these obstacles use easy materials (like paper and recycled cardboard), that makes them easy to do in the classroom, excellent for makerspaces of all sizes, and fun for households at house or for independent student expedition.
Make Cardboard Automata: develop a cardboard robot, a machine with parts that disappear and appear, move up and down, or spin in circles based on integrated patterns and driving systems. The sample shows a caterpillar with several legs that move independently, but trainees can be challenged to make their own customized automata with driving mechanisms that create different motions.
Make Mushroom Packaging to Explore Long-Term Ecological Impact: discover the value of an items life cycle evaluation and explore the use of mycelium composite to make environmentally-friendly items and packaging. The challenge is to create everyday items from a mushroom base that are more environment-friendly to produce than counterparts made from plastics or other materials.
Engineering Challenge Videos.
Research Study Kinetic Energy with a Rube Goldberg Machine: use knowledge of the relationship in between a moving items mass, speed, and kinetic energy to design and build a Rube Goldberg device to complete a basic job. The challenge is to design a maker with multiple stages that, when triggered, can effectively complete the designated task. (Note: This lesson is NGSS-aligned for grades 6-8, but the core principles and difficulty quickly scale for high school engineering and makerspace fun.).
Bio-Engineering: Making and Testing Model Proteins: after discovering protein types, the impact of mutation, and the relationship between a proteins structure and function, students develop designs of various types of proteins and are challenged to utilize craft and common products to make design changes that enhance how the proteins perform their specific jobs.
For additional resources to help teach students about engineering style, see Free Lessons and Videos to Teach the Engineering Design Process.
How To Build a Rube Goldberg Machine.
Marble Machine: construct a gravity-powered device that can automatically arrange two various sizes of beads (or comparable spheres). (This was a Fluor Challenge! Find out about other Fluor Challenge tasks.).
Watch these STEM videos to read more about a few of the engineering design challenges listed above:.
Protecting Nature with Technology: explore the use of sensing unit innovation to measure and reduce human influence on the environment in locations like air quality, water quality, electrical conductivity, and water levels. The obstacle is to recognize areas of human effect and design and construct a sensor-based circuit that can be used to keep track of impact and hence provide details that can be utilized to implement techniques for reducing effect.
Paper Roller Coasters – Fun STEM Activity!
The 11 engineering design difficulties below offer high school students a blend of intricacy, real-world science, and issue fixing. The difficulty is to design a maker with numerous stages that, once activated, can effectively finish the intended task. (Note: This lesson is NGSS-aligned for grades 6-8, but the core ideas and challenge quickly scale for high school engineering and makerspace enjoyable.).
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Tallest Paper Tower Challenge for Grades 9-12: building a tower from paper and tape might sound simple, however finding the ideal balance in between height and stability requires testing and innovation. The difficulty is to build the highest paper tower that is strong enough to support an unopened can of food for at least sixty seconds.
Postponed Release Pill Challenge.
Engineering Challenges for Other Grade Levels.
For engineering activities with other grade levels, see:.
Bio-Engineering: Making and Testing Model Proteins.
