The Daredevil Design Project

Objective: Students use a simplified system to walk through the engineering design process. The design goal is to establish parameters for a ramp system such that a marble will roll down the ramp, launch into the air and hit a particular (small) target.

Materials: Each 2-4 student team will need
  • A marble ramp (Half-pipe tube cut from six-foot length of plumbing insulation foam, inner radius 1 inch. Ramp end propped 3-4 inches, raised end up ~3 feet)
  • Scissors
  • Marble (~5/8 inch diameter)
  • Film container, shot glass or similarly sized container "target"
  • Meter stick
  • Metric tape measure
  • Masking tape
  • Plumb-bob to counter parallax
  • Paper for landing area marks
  • Pencil or marker
  • Table for recording measurements and relationships
  • Web browser connection to the ProMotion Java Applet
  • Web browser connection to the Running The Java Applet Instructions
  • Web browser connection to the ProMotion JavaScript Activity
  • Web browser connection to the Data Flyer Applet


To the Web Lesson!





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