Spaghetti Soapbox Derby
Student pairs design, build, and test model vehicles capable of rolling down a ramp and then coasting freely as far as possible. The challenge is to make the vehicles entirely out of dry pasta using only adhesive (such as hot glue) to hold the components together. Creativity is encouraged and different types of pasta are provided to support different functions such as round pasta for wheels and sheet pasta for the chassis. Students become familiar with the concepts of gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy and rolling resistance. Teams follow the steps of the engineering design process as they design, test and redesign their small-sized vehicles, working within the project's material constraints. The winner of the competitive final event is the pasta car that travels the longest distance beyond the bottom of the ramp.
Students getting ready to test their cars.Copyright 2015 Denise Jabusch, University of California Davis
The activity requires students to think about using a familiar food product as a building material. The primary challenge of the activity is the pasta material constraint. The material is both fragile and not designed to function as a material for a rolling vehicle. Similar to how real-world engineers must find solutions within design constraints such as material, weight and cost limitations, students learn how challenging this can be. For example, mechanical engineers may yearn to design a car frame with the lightest, yet strongest material available, but doing so would cost so much that the car would be unaffordable! Engineers strive to find an acceptable balance, such as creating a strong, safe and relatively lightweight frame, while keeping the material and production costs affordable for the manufacturer and end consumer. In the activity, students also experience the steps of the engineering design process as they brainstorm, prototype, test, evaluate and modify their designs to evolve them into successful solutions.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Identify the type of energy a vehicle has at the top of a ramp.
- Explain that gravitational potential energy is how the car gains speed.
- Explain the logic of changes made to a design after a prototype test.
- Explain what is meant by a design constraint.