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Try This at Home: A Mechanical Engineering Challenge

Christopher Starr
Upper School Science Teacher Lisa Foster is not one to be told, “Don’t try this at home.” 

During this period of distance learning, Foster has asked her students to go beyond worksheets, textbooks, and computer screens and assigned an active science lab for her home-bound pupils. Her “Marble Run Challenge” not only engaged students in the forces of gravity, friction, momentum, and simple machines, but also got whole families involved in a competitive physics lesson.
Inspired by the Dyson Foundation’s Marble Run Challenge, Foster called upon her fifth-grade science students to design an obstacle course for any size ball that would utilize the forces of potential and kinetic energy; simple machines such as levers, inclined planes, and screws; Newton’s Laws of Motion; and friction, gravity, and height. Any material available inside or outside the house was allowed. The trick was to ensure a ball completed the run in exactly 60 seconds—no more, no less.
 
“Initially, there was some frustration, I think,” Foster said. “At school, students are used to collaborating, sharing ideas, and pooling their resources. On this project, they were completely on their own.” As the week unfolded, students let their individuality shine and, in many cases, their siblings and parents became their lab partners. What resulted were some incredible rolling ranges, spanning households, backyards, driveways, and garages. The wide variety of creative marble runs incorporated everything imaginable: garden hoses, hockey sticks, tools, hardware, and balls ranging in size from glass marbles to basketballs.
 
Students were asked to experiment with at least eight trial runs and make modifications accordingly. They were required to document their overall design and detail the modifications they made based on the physical forces altered and the resulting effect on their timings. They presented their results in a three- to five-minute video and then were required to choose two other student videos to critique from a scientific perspective.
 
In their final lab report, they also answered key questions including whether they felt successful, what was their best idea, what was their biggest challenge, and what scientific principles and laws applied to their particular runs and what they learned about simple machines and construction.

“So many parents and siblings became collaborators and it was a whole family activity. That was a lovely (though unintended) consequence!” explained Foster. 

An email from a parent following the completion of the assignment sums it up in three simple words: “This was great!”
 
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