K-12 Engineering Education Standards: - International Technology ...

On Target
Hands-On Challenge
Investigate Force and Energy with PBS’s Design Squad Nation
By Lauren Feinberg
Photo courtesy of Westlake High School
“controlled collision.” That’s what NASA
A scientists and engineers created when
they sent the LCROSS spacecraft (Lunar Crater
Observation and Sensing Satellite) hurtling into a
crater at the moon’s South Pole. The collision sent
up a plume of dust that scientists studied for signs
of water.
In the On Target activity from NASA and
Design Squad Nation, kids will create their own
controlled collision by dropping a marble on a
target using a modified paper cup and a zip line.
In the process, they’ll explore the concepts of
force and energy.
Specific Design Squad Nation episodes,
animations, video clips, and engineer profiles
support this activity and allow you and your
students to delve deeper into the science, see the
engineering design process in action, and make
real-word connections. In this article, we’ll walk
you through how to integrate them into On Target.
“With On Target, my students were using terms like acceleration,
trajectory, and calibration while solving a real-world problem …
they were applying physics without even realizing it.”
—Jeff Hoffman, Technology Education teacher,
Louisville, Ohio
Everything you need is in the Parents, Educators,
and Engineers section of the website within the
resource topic Force/Energy. Find it at pbskidsgo.
org/designsquadnation/parentseducators.
Identify the Problem
Tell your students about NASA’s LCROSS mission. Explain
that NASA wanted the spacecraft to hit an exact place on
the surface of the moon—an existing crater. Note that just
as the success of the LCROSS controlled collision depended
on accuracy and precision, so does success in On Target.
State the challenge: to modify a paper cup so it can zip
down a line and drop a marble precisely onto a target.
Provide kids with the materials (nine feet of fishing line or
kite string, one index card, one marble, masking tape, one
paper clip, one paper cup, scissors, and a target drawn on a
piece of paper.)
Download On Target’s Student Handout and Leader Notes.
15 • Technology and Engineering Teacher • February 2011