Toying With Technologysm

Iowa State University

Egg Drop

Goal: To increase problem-solving skills

Problem:  You have been hired as a transportation engineer to work for the California Department of Transportation to help them solve a serious problem. After a recent major earthquake a section of the lower deck of the Bay Bridge has collapsed into the water causing major traffic problems for those people wanting to leave San Francisco and go to Oakland, Berkeley, and the other cities on that side of the bay. The other problem is that to fix the section that collapsed the CDT needs to get equipment, materials, and personnel to the lower deck where the main supports are. The CDT has assigned you and your team of engineers to design a device that will lower all these things from the top deck of the bridge to the site where the bridge needs to be repaired.

Build a device that will move the construction equipment, materials, and personnel (raw egg) from the desktop to the floor (no human intervention is allowed) using only the materials within the Robolab Kit. The only non-LEGO® piece that is allowed is string, which will be provided.  

Teams will be 2 engineers.

You must turn in a “pre” sketch of your invention to the company BEFORE you start building and must have the sketch okayed by the company

You must program the RCX to execute your invention

Time:  Four hours, then demonstrate

• Steps that you may want to take while building:

• Brainstorm

• Write out ideas

• Draw sketches

• Break up your design into steps

• Getting the egg to your device

• Getting the egg to the floor

• Test

• Use objects that are the approximate weight and size

• Make any changes that are necessary to make your design more efficient

You may want to go here for structural building tips.

For the assignment: 

5 pts - Detailed Sketch

• Sketch needs to be detailed
   

• Must be initialed by a Professor or TA before building
   

• Needs to be handed in with Questions

15 pts - Write Up (Explain in Detail and use examples)

1. What were your successes?

2. What problems did you encounter?

3. What would you do differently if you did this again?  

4. What concepts could be taught out of this activity? Explain in detail.

5. In detail, how could you use the egg drop activity within your specialization? 

   (Include a specific grade level, one that you could teach.)

6. Why would a transportation engineer work on this project? 

   Explain in detail.  

15 pts - Build  

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