Engineering a Minion Rescue
The minions are stuck on a deserted island! Students use the engineering design process to research, design, create and test boats that can rescue the minions. They learn about the physical properties of matter as well as the construction of boats and buoyancy while they engineer a minion rescue.
A small girl setting her homemade sailboat off into the waterCopyright 2019 Kelly McGraw, University of Florida MRET
Mechanical engineers must use their engineering knowledge along with their imagination to create boats for a variety of purposes. Engineers create schematics or detailed blueprints of boat designs in which they consider all parts of the boat such as engines, steering, hull type and shape, electrical and mechanical systems and more. They use the engineering design process to work through their designs to create boats for different purposes.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Identify a problem and research what others have done to solve that problem.
- Understand the properties size, shape, color, temperature, weight, texture, and sinking/floating in water.
- Apply their knowledge of properties to design and create a boat that floats on water.
- Understand the engineering design process and why it is important to engineers.