Cricket Wicket Knockdown Challenge for Grades 9-12

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 Fluor Engineering Challenge for a chance to win a cash prize for your school! Teachers, note that elementary school and middle school versions of this lesson plan are also available, as is a Spanish language version of the basic challenge.

NGSS Alignment

This lesson helps students prepare for these Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations:

• High School - Science & Engineering Practices

This lesson focuses on these aspects of NGSS Three Dimensional Learning:

Science & Engineering Practices	Disciplinary Core Ideas	Crosscutting Concepts
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions. Undertake a design project, engaging in the design cycle, to construct and/or implement a solution that meets specific design criteria and constraints. Optimize performance of a design by prioritizing criteria, making tradeoffs, testing, revising, and retesting. Asking Questions and Defining Problems. Ask and/or evaluate questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument, the interpretation of a data set, or the suitability of a design. Planning and Carrying Out Investigations. Plan an investigation or test a design individually and collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence as part of building and revising models, supporting explanations for phenomena, or testing solutions to problems. Consider possible confounding variables or effects and evaluate the investigation's design to ensure variables are controlled.	ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions. A solution needs to be tested, and then modified on the basis of the test results, in order to improve it. There are systematic processes for evaluating solutions with respect to how well they meet the criteria and constraints of a problem. ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution. The iterative process of testing the most promising solutions and modifying what is proposed on the basis of the test results leads to greater refinement and ultimately to an optimal solution.	Structure and Function. Structures can be designed to serve particular functions by taking into account properties of different materials, and how materials can be shaped and used. Systems and System Models. Systems may interact with other systems; they may have sub-systems and be a part of larger complex systems.

Materials

If you want to enter your device in the 2020 Fluor 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.