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Lesson Plans

Cricket Wicket Knockdown Challenge for Grades 3-5

Summary

Grade Range
3rd-5th
Group Size
2-4 students
Active Time
2-3 hours
Total Time
2-3 hours
Area of Science
Physics
Engineering Challenge
Key Concepts
Engineering Design
Credits
Ben Finio, PhD, Science Buddies

This engineering challenge is based on an internal competition designed by employees at Fluor Corporation.

Science Buddies is committed to creating content authored by scientists and educators. Learn more about our process and how we use AI.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcwvwxesbmw

Overview

Teach your students about the engineering design process with this fun lesson plan. They will design and build a ball-launching machine to knock down a target. Optionally, they can enter their designs in the 2020 Engineering Challenge for a chance to win a cash prize for your school! Teachers, note that middle school and high school versions of this lesson plan are also available.

Learning Objectives

NGSS Alignment

This lesson helps students prepare for these Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations:
This lesson focuses on these aspects of NGSS Three Dimensional Learning:

Science & Engineering Practices
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations. Make observations and/or measurements to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence for an explanation of a phenomenon or test a design solution.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions. Tests are often designed to identify failure points or difficulties, which suggest the elements of the design that need to be improved.

PS2.A: Forces and Motion. Each force acts on one particular object and has both strength and a direction. An object at rest typically has multiple forces acting on it, but they add to give zero net force on the object. Forces that do not sum to zero can cause changes in the object's speed or direction of motion. (Boundary: Qualitative and conceptual, but not quantitative addition of forces are used at this level.)

PS2.B: Types of Interactions. Objects in contact exert forces on each other.
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect. Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified, tested, and used to explain change.

Materials

If you want to enter your device in the 2020 Engineering Challenge, you can only use the materials listed below. Each item has a maximum allowable quantity and a point cost (each) that will be deducted from your score. Note that you can cut the materials, but costs are not prorated; e.g., if you cut a piece of paper in half and only use half of it, it still costs 10 points.

Swipe left to see more
Construction Materials
Item Maximum Quantity Point cost (each)
Cardboard (max size 12"x12" or 30x30 cm) 1 10
2 oz paper or plastic cup 10 3
Wooden craft sticks (4 ½" or 11.5 cm) 10 1
Wooden pencils (circular or hexagonal cross-section, approx. 7–8" or 18–20 cm length) 10 1
Paper (printer/copier paper, not construction paper or cardstock; letter or A4 size) 10 1
Rubber bands (size 32, 3" long unstretched and 1/8" wide) 10 2
Cardboard tube (1 unit = 1 paper towel roll or 2 toilet paper rolls) 2 units 9 per unit
Roll of clear adhesive tape (Scotch® tape or equivalent, 1/2" or 3/4" width, max length 500") 1 10
Duct tape (up to 90 feet total, no more than 2" wide) 90 feet 20 (if any used)
Tools and Testing Materials (no point cost)
ItemQuantityNotes
Ping pong ball 1  
Ruler or measuring tape 1  
Scissors 1  
2 oz paper or plastic cup 1 Used to build the wicket

Wooden pencils 2
Rubber or plastic eraser (approximately 2"x1"x1/2") 1
Modeling clay, Play Doh®, or homemade dough. Enough to fill the 2 oz cup halfway
Table 1. Materials allowed for the 2020 Engineering Challenge.

Background Information for Teachers

This section contains a quick review for teachers of the science and concepts covered in this lesson.

In this lesson, your students will use readily available craft and office supplies to build a device that will launch a ping pong ball at a target to try and knock it down (the target is called a wicket, inspired by the game of cricket). If you have not already, watch this video for an introduction to the challenge. If you want to enter your students' designs in the 2020 Engineering Challenge, make sure you review the official materials and rules before you begin.

Optionally, you can link this challenge to other science or engineering topics in your classroom.

  • Engineering design: use this lesson to teach your students about the process of designing, building, testing, and iterating (changing the design to improve it based on the results of testing, then testing again).
  • Forces: you can use this lesson to talk about balanced and unbalanced forces (e.g. what causes the eraser to remain balanced? What causes it to fall?), and the forces between objects that are in contact with each other (e.g. the ping pong ball when it collides with something).

Additional Background Links

Prep Work (15 minutes)

  • Gather all the construction materials in a central location for students.
  • Print the student worksheets if you will be using them.
  • Optional: assign the introductory video for your students to watch before class.
  • Optional: build at least one working ball launcher to show your class. This may be useful if students have trouble coming up with their own ideas or understanding how to build a working launcher. However, it creates a risk that students will all build a similar design instead of coming up with their own designs. You can get general ideas from the introductory video, and specific instructions for one type of catapult in this activity.
  • Optional: prepare the wickets for students, as shown in Figure 1.

Teacher Tool Box

Related Lessons

Engage (5 minutes)

Introduce the challenge to your students. Explain that their main goal is to build a ball-launching device that can knock down a target as many times as possible in three minutes. The target is an eraser balanced on top of two pencils stuck in a cup filled with clay. Together, these parts are all called the "wicket." Show your students the introductory video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcwvwxesbmw

Then, go over the student worksheet, including the rules (also listed below).

Rules

Launching Device

  1. Device can only be built with items on the official materials list.
  2. Device must be free-standing and rest on the ground or a cardboard base. It cannot be taped to the ground or another object like furniture. It cannot be held up in the air or supported by a person (if you let go of it, it shouldn't fall over).
  3. The device must launch the ping pong ball (e.g., using a rubber band or a lever). This launching action can be activated by a person, using one or two hands (e.g., stretching a rubber band, pushing on a lever). The device cannot just support the ball while a person throws the ball (e.g., like a golf tee—the device can't just hold the ball in place while you flick it forward with your finger).

Testing

  1. Wicket must be built according to the diagram shown in Figure 1.
  2. Wicket must be placed upright, at least 1 foot from the nearest wall or obstacle (Figure 2).
  3. Your launching device must be a minimum of 2 feet away from the wicket (Figure 2).
  4. Testing may be done by a team of up to four students (e.g. one student to launch the ball, one student to retrieve the ball, one student to reset the eraser or wicket, and one student to record the number of times the eraser is knocked over).
  5. The ball is allowed to bounce or roll on the ground before hitting the wicket. If a ball bounces off the wall or any object (including a student) and then knocks the eraser over, that does not count (Figure 3). It does not matter if the ball hits anything after hitting the wicket.
  6. The ball does not need to hit the eraser directly in order to knock it down. It still counts if the ball hits the cup or the pencils and makes the eraser fall.
  7. For the official test to calculate your score, there is a time limit of three minutes to see how many times you can knock the eraser off the wicket.
  8. You can do as many official tests as you want to try and get a higher score, but you can only submit one high score per team.

Do you have a question that is not answered by these rules? See the FAQ.

Drawing of an eraser held up by two vertical pencils stuck into a cup filled with modeling clayImage Credit: Ben Finio. Science Buddies / Science Buddies
Figure 1. The wicket is made from a 2 oz plastic or paper cup half-filled with modeling clay. Two pencils are stuck into the clay vertically, 1 inch apart, and an eraser is balanced on top. The goal is to launch a ping pong ball at the wicket and knock the eraser down.

Diagram of a small catapult two feet away from a wicketImage Credit: Science Buddies
Figure 2. Minimum distances between the launcher, wicket, and other obstacles. The launching device must be at least 2 feet from the wicket. The wicket must be at least 1 foot from any nearby obstacles like walls or furniture.

Diagram of acceptable trajectories for a small catapult in-front of a wicketImage Credit: Ben Finio, Science Buddies / Science Buddies
Figure 3. Illustration of how the ball can bounce before hitting the wicket. The ball can bounce off the floor multiple times, or roll on the floor, before hitting the wicket. The shot does not count if the ball bounces off other obstacles, like a wall or person, before hitting the wicket.

Explore (90 minutes)

  1. Design: before they start building anything, have your students draw some of their ideas. Remind them to think about the materials they are allowed to use. They can label these materials on their drawing. That will help them show how to build it.
  2. Build: if your students have trouble building working launchers independently, you can guide them through this process. Each group should discuss what they drew and decide what they will build. They can pick one person's design or combine their ideas into a new design. After deciding, they should work together to build their machine.
  3. Test: after building, they should test their machine and look for problems. Does anything break? Does the ball go far enough to hit the wicket when it is two feet away? How accurately can they aim the ball? How quickly can they re-load the ball into their launcher? Based on their tests, what can they improve about their design?
    1. Optional, if you are teaching about forces: have students set up the eraser on the wicket themselves and observe how to balance it. What happens when the ping pong ball collides with the wicket? What causes the eraser to fall?
  4. Iterate: emphasize that it is OK if their machines did not work on the first try! This is why real engineers test things, so they can fix them and make improvements. Encourage your students to keep making observations and improving their machines. Can they knock the eraser down two or three times in a row? Now they are ready to do an official test for a high score!

Reflect (30 minutes)

Once students have finished building their devices, have a class-wide competition to calculate official scores.

  1. Set up a single wicket for official testing.
  2. One at a time, let each team bring up their launcher and set it up (remember to use a ruler or tape measure and make sure it is at least two feet away from the wicket!).
  3. Let the students load the ping pong ball in their launcher.
  4. Start the stopwatch and let the students start launching the ball. As soon as the eraser is knocked down, they can reset it and keep launching.
  5. Keep track of how many times the eraser is knocked down within the three-minute time limit.
  6. Move on to the next group.
  7. If time allows, you can let each group go more than once to try and get a better score.

Discuss the results of the competition as a class.

  • Did anyone draw designs that looked the same at first?
  • Did anyone draw a design that no one else thought of?
  • What problems did groups encounter during the building/testing process?
  • Do the best designs have anything in common?

Assess

  • Collect your students' worksheets and use them to assess how they worked through the design process.
  • Ask each group to tell the rest of their class about their design. How does it work? Did they have any problems?

Make Career Connections

Discussing or reading about these careers can help students make important connections between the in-class lesson and STEM job opportunities in the real world.

Mechanical Engineer
Add Favorite
Career Profile
Mechanical engineers design and build machines with lots of moving parts. Did you enjoy designing a moving machine, figuring out what materials to use, and testing it to find out how well it worked? Read more
Engineering Manager
Add Favorite
Career Profile
Engineering managers supervise other engineers and make sure all the tasks are done well so that the whole project goes smoothly. If there's a problem, they're on the front lines of solving it. If you worked on the Knockdown Challenge as a team, did someone on the team take on the role of coordinating everyone? That's exactly the role of an engineering manager. Read more

Lesson Plan Variations

Did your students enjoy this type of hands-on project? Check out the other Engineering Challenges and try them in your classroom!

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