In this project, you’ll design and build a marble roller coaster using classroom materials. You’ll explore Newton’s laws of motion and research design strategies—banked turns, controlled friction, and energy-saving drops—to keep the marble moving. Your mission: make the marble take the longest time to reach the bottom without stopping. On the final day, we’ll time every coaster and compare which design choices slowed the marble the most.
You’ll research different catapult designs and choose features to build your own launcher. Then you’ll turn it into a carnival game—add a theme, set up targets with point values, and write the rules. On carnival day, we’ll use tickets to play each game and try to win!
Over this project, you’ll explore gears—ratios, torque, and how power moves—to design a motor-powered car. You’ll research example designs, sketch your plan, and choose a gear train that fits your goal. Then you’ll learn to solder the motor’s wires into your circuit and connect everything to the gear train, testing and tweaking alignment, gearing, and weight. On the final day, we’ll line up for races and see which designs deliver the best speed and control.
Over this project, you’ll learn how energy, impact, and crumple zones help keep things safe in a crash. You’ll research real-world safety ideas and design an egg-drop escape pod to survive a second-story drop. Build, test, and tweak your pod—balance shock absorption, stability, and protection. We’ll drop them all and compare results, with bonus points for the lightest escape pod that keeps the egg intact.
Work in teams to spot a real-world problem and brainstorm an original invention or smart improvement. Learn product design basics—user needs, sketching, and planning materials—then build and test a working prototype. Iterate like real inventors: gather feedback, refine features, and get your demo ready. Finish with a Shark Tank–style pitch—presentation + live demo—explaining the problem, your solution, and why it matters.
In this self-paced unit, you’ll learn 3D modeling with SketchUp using step-by-step tutorials. Start small to master the basics—orbit, measure, push/pull, groups/components—then design your own original model. You’ll export your work as an STL, choose simple print settings (layer height, infill, supports), and prep it for the printer. Finally, we’ll print your design on our Flash Forge Finder 3 and see how your idea turns into a real object.
In this self-paced coding unit, you’ll work in the computer lab using Code.org and Scratch. You’ll learn core concepts—sequences, loops, events, conditionals, and variables—through bite-sized puzzles and tutorials. Then you’ll create your own projects: animations, mini-games, and interactive stories you can share. Move at your own speed, hit the checkpoints, and level up your skills as you go.