Keeping Damp in a Drought
Can your students design an optimal environment for a drought-stricken plant?Copyright 2019 Kayla Sutcliffe, University of Florida MRET
In this maker challenge, students utilize the engineering design process as they design a way for mint plants to keep a constant moisture level for 72 hours. The mint plants must be kept moist since they are young and just starting to establish growth. Before students receive the mint plants, they must prove that they can keep the moisture level constant. Students employ the engineering design process and conduct research on different materials used to hold in moisture, evaluate proposed solutions, build and test prototypes, revise and improve their designs, and report their findings to the rest of the class.
- different types of soil or mulch (three to four varieties are ideal)
- different types of pots (8 to 10 cm in diameter) made of plastic and clay (two varieties are ideal)
- assortment of materials to place around and on the soil, such as plastic or aluminum foil
- beaker or graduated cylinder
- water
- cup or trowel (for scooping soil)
- moisture meter, examples available online
- lab notebooks and pens
- poster paper and markers
- mint plants (optional: see Wrap Up below)
Contributors
Kayla Sutcliffe
Supporting Program
Multidisciplinary Research Experiences for Teachers of Elementary Grades, Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, University of Florida
Acknowledgements
This curriculum was based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under RET grant no. EEC 1711543— Engineering for Biology: Multidisciplinary Research Experiences for Teachers in Elementary Grades (MRET) through the College of Engineering at the University of Florida. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Copyright
2019 by Regents of the University of Colorado; original © 2019 University of Florida
