Bobbing for Apples with Problem Investigators

Problem Investigators were hard at work in room 302 today.  Their task was to work collaboratively with their team to design and build a device to grab apples out of a tub of water using only the materials that they were given. They relied on their skills of problem solving, perseverance, and patience as they engineered their answers.

We started by defining our problem or purpose:  Design and build an apple-grabbing device using a list of criteria (requirements) and constraints (limitations).

Next, we did some problem solving by researching about sinking, floating, and buoyancy. We read several articles, jotted our new learning, and thought about how we could use our new knowledge to help us with this challenge.

Then, came the planning.  Our junior engineers sketched their designs.

They demonstrated perseverance and patience as they built, tested, redesigned and improved their designs multiple times until their device met the criteria.

A friendly competition was held to see which group's device could grab the most apples in one minute.  Students collected data and created line plots to display the data.

We know ways to play because it helps us learn!

Building Our Devices

Testing Our Designs

A Friendly Competition

Recording Data

Making Line Plots to Display Data