Allie wants to go to Mars when she grows up so she decided to do an engineering challenge as her first grade science project. The challenge involves designing a lander to contain marshmallows when dropped from a height over 6 feet.
We first watched this video on NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity to see the challenge of landing on Mars.
Project Background:
- Humans have not reached Mars yet
- Robots have been to Mars to explore the planet
- Landing a robot on Mars is a big challenge
- NASA used parachutes, rockets, and springs to land the Curiosity Rover
The Engineering Design Challenge:
- You have made it to Mars and need to safely land with your fellow astronauts.
- The task is to design a lander using only the materials listed below that lands safely (keeps all of her astronaut friends in the cup).
- The lander will be dropped from 6 feet two times to test the design.
Materials: Index cards, tape, straw, cup, and marshmallows
Ask: What do you know?
- A parachute will help the lander land softer
- Marshmallows are not heavy so it had a lighter load
- Straws are good to hold up a parachute
- The tape will hold everything together
Create and test first design: The first design was to make a lander with a parachute. When the lander was dropped from a height of 6 feet the lander fell over dumping out all of her astronaut marshmallow friends.
Redesign and test second design: The lander needed to be more stable when it landed so she gave it legs, “springs” (accordion folded index cards). This design did not include a parachute. When this design was tested, it bounced and the marshmallows flew out the top. Allie decided to combine the two designs by adding springs and a parachute.
Conclusion and final design: The design used a parachute, legs, and springs to keep her marshmallow friends inside the lander!
What was learned:
- The parachute helped slow down the landing
- Index cards as springs helped soften the landing
- The legs kept it from tipping over
Here is a picture of Allie’s final lander design. She called it the “Allie Express”. You’ve got to love a first grader’s creativity!
This was a simple engineering challenge and easy to do with simple materials. We hope this inspires you too!
The challenge was adapted from here.
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