Swiss Alps Emergency Sled Design
Students act as engineers to solve a hypothetical problem that has occurred in the Swiss Alps due to a seismic event. In research groups, students follow the steps of the engineering design process as teams compete to design and create small-size model sleds that can transport materials to people in distress who are living in the affected town. The sleds need to be able to carry various resources that the citizens need for survival as well as meet other design requirements. Students test their designs and make redesigns to improve their prototypes in order to achieve final working designs. Once the designs and final testing are complete, students create final technical reports.
Two maps of Switzerland show population centers compared with seismic activity in the country between 1975 and 2014.Copyright (left) 2018 Nations Online (public domain); (right) 2018 Swiss Seismological Service (public domain)
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/switzerland-administrative-map.htm
http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/en/research-and-teaching/fields_of_research/seismicity-in-switzerland/
Whenever products are being developed for human need, many factors need to be taken into consideration. In this activity, students, like engineers, are concerned with the sled’s safety as well as how it handles load, speed and distance. Because government regulations exist for the construction of any public transportation, students and engineers must understand these project constraints. Therefore, safety is a top priority in their design and construction. For situations in which citizens need rescue equipment, manufacturers must ensure top quality. Typically, appropriate testing measures for durability, speed, and distance are regulated by watchdog groups and government entities.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Research scientific resources.
- Sketch a sled design.
- Create and build a prototype sled.
- Demonstrate tests for speed and distance.
- Describe what a natural disaster is.
- Discuss safety issues.
- Complete a technical report.
- Calculate speed of an object when given distance and time.