Building & Testing Model Underground Safety Caverns
Students build and test model caverns.Copyright (drawings) Don Davis, NASA and (photo) NASA
http://www.donaldedavis.com/PARTS/K-TNASA.jpg
http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/images/mm_gallery/coastline_jpg.jpg
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/where-astronauts-come-from_prt.htm
Concluding the Asteroid Impact challenge, students build model caverns and bury them in a tray of sand. They test the models by dropping a heavy ball onto them to simulate an asteroid hitting the Earth. By molding papier-mâché or clay around balloons (to form domes), or around small cardboard boxes (to form rectangular structures), students create unique models of their cavern designs. Examining how their structures survived the asteroid impact, students make improvements and impact test again, experiencing design iteration. Teams each make two mini class presentations to show the sustained damage, explain their intended improvements, and report on the success of their updated designs.
A vital part of the engineering design process involves testing possible and final solutions. This often involves building scaled models of a design solution and testing it. Lessons learned from the testing informs further improvement in the design evolution.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Working with pre-determined design constraints, use papier-mâché to create a model structure.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of a structure against impact failure.
- Continue an iterative design process.