Pringle Project

GOAL: The students were to design a container to send a pringle successfully through the mail in one piece with a density of less than 1 gram/cubic centimeter. For my challenge classes, the students were required to have a density of greater than 1 gram/cubic centimeter, which was much more difficult. Less than half were successful in keeping the density greater than 1.

Below are pictures of the containers and pringles once they arrived at Truman.

1st Hour

3rd Hour

4th Hour

6th Hour

7th Hour

Gummy Bears Lab

Testable Question: What happens to a gummy bear if you leave it in water over night?

The students measured the volume, mass, and density before and after it sat in water for 24 hours.

The pictures show you what happens.

Seeing these results, the challenge students had to design their own lab changing the independent variable. Some groups wanted to see what would happen in different liquids, other groups tested to see what happens if left in the water for 48 hours. Another group wanted to see if the size cup affected how much water was absorbed into the gummy bear.

Challenge Students Built Bridge Supports

The students built tetrahedrons with straws and string for their bridge supports. The students were wanting to see how the placement of the supports affected how much weight could be added to their bridge. Ultimately, the placement of the supports was not as important of the strength of the supports.  The most that was stacked was 6 books.