Engineering Pop-Up Books
Students learn about applied forces as they create pop-up-books — the art of paper engineering. They also learn the basic steps of the engineering design process.
Students create pop-up booksCopyright Flickr https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5198/6896999720_9cc1a50d71.jpg
Just like forces travel from your hand to move an object, engineers want forces to "travel" in their designs as well. For example, in the construction of buildings and bridges, engineers make sure the forces acting upon the structures (people, washing machines, trucks, wind, snow, etc.) will be safely transferred to foundations in the ground. During the engineering design process, they do this by adding up all the potential forces that could be applied to a structure and drawing free-body diagrams — drawings that help to visualize how forces act upon an object — to ensure that the structure will not collapse.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Define a force and identify several forces in their environment.
- Understand how forces work in a pop-up book.
- Use brainstorming as a means to generate ideas for a work of art.
- Use the engineering design process to create a product for a client..