Read and follow instructions for the experimental portion of this activity. Document all of your trials in your Engineering Notebook (or Journal) with illustrations and and annotations. Be organized in your approach so that you can easily document problems and solutions as they are occurring
Record all of your thoughts and difficulties as you go along for later reflection.
This activity will be designing and building a toothpick bridge to preset specifications. After the completion of this process each bridge will be weight tested to failure as a learning exercise in stresses and strain of a multi-member structure.
This exploration and documentation should include the following:
Collaboration and brainstorming
Planning, documenting and predicting outcomes
Testing ideas and documenting process and results
Reflecting and improving ideas, understandings or designs
Self directed experimentation
...Then Brainstorm Together in Class Webpage Discussion Post
An extension activity of developing bridge designs in an electronic design medium will follow this hands on activity.
Bonus Presentation Opportunity:
Your group presentation artifact shall be a PowerPoint presentation of no less that 5 slides and no more than 15. Your presentation should address all factors considered and how looking at the other groups work may have affected your final analysis.
All PowerPoint presentations should be of professional and conservative business or scientific format. These shall then be posted on an ongoing web based class project site and each persons personal web portfolio for display on the internet. All pages and portfolios shall conform to internet safety standards and acceptable language and content policies.
A formal peer review shall be done as a discussion post on the class webpage and shall be completed appropriate to said venue with regard to commentary, language and content. This review/reflection is to be a graded activity of self and peer assessment skills.