Draft 12/2013 Engineering Notebook Here Comes the Sun: Engineering Insulated Homes Name:
Prep Activity 1 Criteria and Constraints Woolly Mammoth Melt Your goal: to design an insulated transportation tank that will protect the woolly mammoth from melting for the five minutes when it is in the testing area. Criteria (what your transportation tank needs to do) You must use a clear plastic deli container as your transportation tank base You must use an ice cube to represent your woolly mammoth Your ice cube should melt as little as possible Constraints (ways you are limited) You only have 25 minutes to design your tank You can only use 5 items to insulate your tank (but you can use as much tape as you would like) You must place your tank under the sun lamp for five minutes to test it You will have a clear plastic deli container, a pair of scissors, and you can use an unlimited amount of tape Available Materials (choose 5 items): black foam squares black felt squares sheets of aluminum foil green construction paper squares black construction paper squares Sun lamp set up L Bracket rubber bands paper towel squares black felt squares binder clips Sunlamp Put your tank design here Remember: You ll need a way to put your model woolly mammoth ice cube into your design before testing, and remove it after testing. 2
Engineering Transportation Tanks Prep Activity Draw Your Tank Use the space below to draw a diagram of the tank your team engineered. 1 Calculate your percent change in mass to figure out how much your mammoth model melted! Start Mass - End Mass = Change in Mass Change in Mass/Start Mass = Percent Change Which step of the Engineering Design Process was most useful to you? Why? 3
Prep Activity 2 What is Technology? Technology is anything designed by people to help solve a problem or meet a need. 1. What problem does your technology solve? 2. When you find your technology match, record it below Older Technology Modern Technology 3. Can you imagine ways to improve the modern technology from your technology match? Draw or write your ideas below. 4
My Engineer Profile Prep Activity 2 Think about yourself as an engineer. Use a red marker to check off your engineering strengths. Use a blue marker to circle any engineering skills you d like to practice getting better at throughout the rest of this engineering unit. communicating building things imagining being creative drawing working on a team leading a team analyzing data making a plan offering critical feedback on others work receiving feedback on your own work moving forward after something doesn t work thinking of different ways to do something solving problems troubleshooting problems Are there other engineering skills that you feel are strengths or things you hope to get better at? List ideas here and add to your list as you move through the unit. Can you think of a technology you use everyday that you could use engineering to improve? How would you improve it? 5
Activity 1 Shipping Container Homes Shipping containers are large boxes used to transport goods around the world. Most shipping containers are about the size of a school bus. People around the world have started to repurpose old shipping containers as homes. San Antonio, Texas 6
Shipping Container Homes Activity 1 Costa Rica France Chile 7
Activity 1 Model Homes Make Your Model Materials: 1 sun lamp 1 L bracket 100 watt light bulb 1 small box of thin cardboard A pen or pair of scissors Follow these directions to set up your model: 1. Use a cardboard box as your model shipping container home. 2. Use a pen or the sharp point of a pair of scissors to make a hole in the center towards the bottom of your box. 3. Slide the thermometer into the hole. Be sure you can still read the temperature. 4. Tape one end of your L bracket to the table. Be sure the bracket is sturdy! 5. Hang your sunlamp off the end of the bracket not taped down. 6. Put your model house under the sunlamp. 7. Your setup should look like the picture below when you are done. Sunlamp L Bracket Model Home Thermometer 8
Here Comes the Sun Activity 1 Test Your Model 1. Use your timer to keep track of how long you ve had your lamp on. Use the chart below to record what you find. Start Time: Start Temperature: End Time: End Temperature: 2. When you turn off your sun lamp, touch your model home roof. How does it feel? 3. Leave your experiment set-up as-is for now. 4. Calculate the total change in temperature of your model. How did the sunlamp affect the air inside? end temp start temp change in temp Imagine Insulation ideas Do you have any ideas about how you could insulate your groups model home? Imagine some ideas and sketch them out below. 9
Activity 2 Investigating Insulation Variables After the group has decided on the experimental set up, use the diagram below to record the details. Collecting Data How long will we collect data for? minutes. Distance from sunlamp to insulation How often? Every minutes. Thickness of insulation Test 1. Use your timer to keep track of how long you ve had your lamp on. Use the chart below to record what you find. 0 Minutes (Start Time) Start Temperature: (End Time) End Temperature: 2. Calculate the total change in temperature 3. How does this change in temperature compare to the control? What does that tell you about the effectiveness of this material as insulation? 10
Insulation Word Search Activity 2 Can you find the words listed below? Completing the Word Search will earn you $500 in Insulation Bucks to buy materials for your final design. B N Y I J Z Q Z B A I V B Y V V Q Z E F L V S L W O U O L D K V G A P Q I F N M W H S A J P K B Y Z D O A U H M G O G T C W S O B Y V H V Y L F K R D M N C I I I V P W X T J H M O V Z D D I K T L N M B C F X Q Y Z W N I R V N V N A C Y E B X A A V W R X H V Z C K J R O J B C E C I C V C Y M C C L T B W V V I I O L R N S F A H R E N H E I T R E H T S E T E M S T P M T O W F N Y L Q F J A U A A J S W W N M B V X Q E F C N F C L N U D E F T J C I M E H G P I K G R Q U I E J O H A U A A A C Y A V Q V I Z M S G K E M N E Q C L O R T N O C T T T F N T B M R G H H Y M L H T H L E W L V N I A C S I G B O S D L H F S R B U G S W X V O T C V Y Q V U Y J M I N H E O M Z J H N L K I I L J P H P A E R O Q X F U V A G X Y H S E T K Z M O E K K C R L X I A L J W T G C N P P L K C W W R Z J Z Q I V E O L Constraints Control Criteria Engineer Fahrenheit Green Heat Insulation 11 Technology Variables
Activity 3 Shipping Container Home Spaces Most shipping containers are about 40 feet by 8 feet. That s 320 square feet, or about the same size as a school bus. 40 feet 8 feet Below are some average footprints for pieces of furniture and appliances common in homes. Queen Bed 5 x 7 Sofa 3 x 7 Arm Chair 3 x 3 Stove Top 3 x 3 Sink 2 x 3 Toilet 2 x 3 Table and Chairs 6 x 6 Bathtub 3 x 6 It s easy to use graph paper to set up a scale for your floorplan. Just pick how many squares will represent one foot. If 1 square = 1 foot, then your shipping container would be 40 squares long and 8 squares wide (40 feet by 8 feet). What about if 2 squares = 1 foot? 12
My Shipping Container Floor Plan Activity 3 Tape the graph paper floor plan for your shipping container home in the space below. 13
Activity 3 Insulation Crossword Completing the Crossword will earn you $500 in Insulation Bucks to buy materials for your final design. 3 1 4 5 6 2 Across 4. A limitation 5. Anything designed by people to solve problems 6. The steps engineers use to help them engineer technologies Down 1. A thing or factor about an experiment that you can change 2. Materials that slows the movement of energy, such as heat 3. People who use knowledge of science, math, and creativity to solve problems 4. Things your design needs to do Word Bank Engineer Engineering Design Process Insulators Criteria Constraint Technology Variable 14
Engineering Challenge Details Activity 4 How many people will live in the home your model represents? 1 person 2 people 3 people How many insulation bucks do you have to put towards materials? Each team gets $1000 Insulation Bucks Did you complete the Insulation Word Search? No $0 Yes $500 Did you complete the Insulation Crossword? No $0 Yes $500 Total Material Aluminum foil Foam sheets Felt sheets Construction paper Bubble wrap Cotton ball bag (6 cotton balls per bag) Transparency sheets Sand bag (1/2 cup per bag) Cost in insulation bucks $50 per sheet $100 per sheet $100 per sheet $75 per sheet $200 per sheet $200 per bag $50 per sheet $200 per bag Imagine Use the space below to imagine your design. Will you use one or two model shipping containers? What insulation material(s) will you use? 15
Activity 4 Your Goal: To use insulation to engineer a model home that stays at a comfortable temperature inside no matter how high or low the temperature gets outside. Work with your group to plan your insulated model home design and draw it below. Plan Your Model Materials list Cost Total Cost 16
Testing Activity 4 Test your model 1. Use the charts below to record what you find. Control Findings (Your model with no insulation) 0 Minutes (Start Time) Start Temperature: (End Time) End Temperature: Insulated Model Findings 0 Minutes (Start Time) Start Temperature: (End Time) End Temperature: 2. How well did your design insulate your home? Improvement Ideas 1. Are there parts of your insulated model home design you would like to improve? Circle them on your Plan page, or write about the changes below. Is your insulated model home a technology? Why or why not? 17
Activity 5 Improve Implement some of the improvement ideas you had last time. Then predict and test. Predict How do you think placing your insulated model home in a low temperature environment will affect the temperature inside? Test your model 1. Use the chart below to record the change in temperature of your insulated model home when it is being tested in low temperatures. Control Findings (Your model with no insulation) 0 Minutes (Start Time) Start Temperature: (End Time) End Temperature: Insulated Model Findings 0 Minutes (Start Time) Start Temperature: (End Time) End Temperature: 2. What did you find? Did it matter that your model was tested in a low temperature and not a high temperature? Improvement Ideas 1. Are there parts of your insulated model home design you would like to improve? Circle them on your Plan page, or write about the changes below. 18
Communicate Activity 5 During the next activity, you ll get to share information about your engineering challenge with people who are not familiar with the problem. What are some things you might want to tell them about engineering insulating homes? 19
Activity 6 My Engineer Profile 2 Now that you ve worked on this engineering challenge, think about how your engineering skills have changed. Use a red marker to check off your engineering strengths. Use a blue marker to circle any engineering skills you d like to practice getting better at throughout the rest of this engineering unit. communicating building things imagining being creative drawing working on a team leading a team analyzing data making a plan offering critical feedback on others work receiving feedback on your own work moving forward after something doesn t work thinking of different ways to do something solving problems troubleshooting problems Compare your list above to the list you made during the second activity. What engineering skill do you think you ve improved the most? What would you like to engineer next? 20
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Box Template If you are not using foldable cardboard boxes or empty cracker or pasta boxes to create your model homes, you can also cut a template out of a sheet of poster board. See the measurements below for more details. 6 inches 6 inches 8 inches 23