Toxic Island: Designing Devices to Deliver Goods
What delivery design will help your students reach the toxic island?Copyright 2019 Brad Parsons, School of Engineering and Technology, Central Michigan University
A classic engineering challenge involves designing and building devices that can deliver necessary goods to “Toxic Island,” an island that has been quarantined by the World Health Organization due to a nasty outbreak of disease. Working within specific constraints, students design a device that must not touch the water or island, and must deliver supplies accurately and quickly. Students also must design their delivery systems by choosing from a limited number of materials. Students follow the engineering design process as they brainstorm and create designs, as well as test and iterate on their prototypes.
- notebooks
- stopwatch or timer
- assortment of building supplies such as large sheets of cardboard, Styrofoam, aluminum foil, paper, saran wrap, plastic bottles, cardboard, construction paper, straws, bubble wrap, rubber bands, string, paper or binder clips, mouse traps, clothes and safety pin, popsicle sticks, spoons, cups, paper plates, and yard sticks
- assortment of adhesives and cutting tools such as stapler, duct tape, white glue, cement glue, hot glue, tape, box cutter, and scissors
- blue tarp, 3.7 m x 3.7 m (12 ft. x 12 ft.) to represent the ocean
- plastic pail, 9 L (~5 gallons), to represent the island
- box of “supplies” to be delivered to the island; this can be a toy or stuffed animal, or a box decorated like a supply delivery
Contributors
Ron Ratkos; Matt Barco; William Gustin; David Proctor; Holly Ylitalo; Jennifer Bole; Christopher Cole; Andy Frisch; Caleb Wagar; Allison Abram; Will Falkner; Emily Miller; Brad Parsons; Alexandra Wagner; Beth Christiansen
Supporting Program
Research Experience for Teachers Program, Central Michigan University
Acknowledgements
This curriculum was based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under RET grant no. EEC 1542368— Research Experience for Teachers through Central Michigan University. 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.
Thanks to Dr. Kumar Yelamarthi, Project Coordinator, and Julie Cunningham, Co-Project Coordinator.
Copyright
2019 by Regents of the University of Colorado; original © 2018 Central Michigan University