Teachers TryScience

Ship the Chip

Oct 02 2014

Source: IEEE

Summary Information

Keywords:

engineering design, materials engineering, properties of materials, packaging, manufacturing

Topic:

Physical Science

Estimated Time Required:

2-3 hours

Target Grade (Ages):

Grade 5 (Ages 10-11)

Grade 6 (Ages 11-12)

Grade 7 (Ages 12-13)

Grade 8 (Ages 13-14)

Grade 9 (Ages 14-15)

Grade 10 (Ages 15-16)

Grade 11 (Ages 16-17)

Grade 12 (Ages 17-18)

Tab Wrapper

LESSON

Goals and Prerequisites

Goals:

As a result of this lesson, students will:

Learn about engineering product planning and design.
Learn about meeting the needs of society.
Learn about teamwork and working in groups.

Instructional Objective(s)

As a result of this activity, students should develop an understanding of:

Package design planning and testing
problem solving
teamwork

Instructional Resources

Background:

Engineers often work with marketing, sales, and perhaps a creative department when recommending packaging requirement for a product. Good packaging must protect the product, eliminate any damage while moving, shipping, or storing the products, and also make the product attractive if it is to be displayed in a consumer environment such as a grocery store, hardware store, or department store. For this reason, packaging is a critical part of a product's design and engineering process, and engineers must take many factors into consideration including appearance, function, and costs.

Engineers have to consider the durability, cost, and performance of different materials when designing products and the package they will ship or be displayed in. Many factors will help determine which materials to use, such as how long the package will be on the product, how fragile or expensive the product is, and whether exposure to temperature or humidity would impact the performance of the product.

Materials:

Construction Materials
One set of materials for each group of students: one chip, paper, cardboard, glue, tape, string, cotton balls, plastic wrap, toothpicks, popsicle sticks, foil -- other materials you have on hand, and a preaddressed mailing label to your school. Be sure each team has the same materials available to them.
Student Handouts

Ship the Chip Student Handout

Procedure:

Divide students into groups of 2-3 students, providing a set of materials per group.
Explain that students must work in teams of "engineers" who have been given the challenge of designing the smallest, lightest package of all the engineering teams in your classroom that will protect a single potato chip shipped through the mail from a remote location to your school. The arriving chip must be edible, though students shouldn't eat them after their journey through the postal system. This rule simply prevents students from applying any substance to the chip to make it stronger.
Students will need to research their local postal regulations to determine if there are minimum sizes, weights, or other considerations they'll need to consider in their design.
Students will first meet, plan, and draw their planned package.
Next, students construct their packages and provide them to you for shipping.
Once all packages have arrived at the school, students will weigh, measure, and evaluate the contents of the packages, using the scoring system below.
Students complete evaluation and reflection sheets, and then present their reflections to the class.

Scoring:

The following three measurements must be made for each incoming package:

Mass of the package in Kg's to at least 3 significant figures.
Volume of the package in cubic centimeters to at least 3 significant figures.
Intactness score of the chip on the following scale:

100 Points: like new, perfect
50 Points: slightly damaged; cracked but still in one piece
10 Points: broken in 2 - 5 pieces
5 Points: broken in 6-20 pieces
1 Point: broken into more than 20 pieces; crumbled

Determine the overall score for each package to determine the top scoring "engineering team." Use the following equation:

Overall Score = Intactness score (c) / [mass in Kg (a) x volume in cc (b)]

Example: a. mass = 0.145 kg b. volume = 240 cc c. intactness score = 100
Overall Score: (c) 100 / [(a) 0.145 kg x (b) 240 cc] = 2.87

Tips:

Be sure each package has a unique code on the outside to identify which team created it.
The teacher needs to select chips (potato, corn, other) that are similar, or better yet, identical in size, weight, and thickness to ensure the project is fair to all.
All packages should be shipped from the same location on the same day at the same time. To add a little excitement, perhaps another teacher or school employee who is traveling a distance could ship the packages from a remote location back to the school.
Packages may be marked fragile.
No overnight shipping is allowed.
Develop a plan ahead of time for having your class measure the volume and mass of the sealed package as it returns.
It is the responsibility of the teacher to make sure that incoming packages are fairly evaluated. Select honest and responsible people to measure and check the package and its contents, and tell them to gently open the package. If you trust your class, they can check each others packages, but it may be better to have a different group of students do the measuring, perhaps in a math class.
Students should check with the local postal service regarding minimum size, weight, or other requirements for packages to be shipped.

Extensions

Write an essay or a paragraph about a packaging design that you think could be improved to either reduce the amount of plastic or other materials used, or take up less space on store shelves.

Assessments and Rubrics

If you are interested in learning how to make your own rubric for this or other lessons, you may be interested in watching the How to Make a Rubric video below.

These reflective questions will help assess student understanding:

What was one thing you liked about your design? What is its main weakness?
What is one thing you would change about your design based on your experience?
Are there algebraic and physical principles that can be applied to this activity?
How would you modify the instructions to create a better experience for the participants?

External Resources