Swiss Alps Emergency Sled Design Project

Swiss Alps Emergency Sled Design
https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/uod-2272-sled-design-challenge-earthquakes-emergency

You will act as engineers to solve a hypothetical problem that has occurred in the Swiss Alps due to a seismic event. In research groups, you will follow the engineering design process steps as teams compete to design and create small-sized model sleds that can transport materials to people in distress living in the affected town. The sleds need to be able to carry various resources that the citizens need for survival as well as meet other design requirements. You will test your design and make redesigns to improve your prototypes to achieve final working designs. You will create final technical reports once the designs and final testing are complete.

​Introduction

When thinking about the science of sledding, multiple factors need to be accounted for. One consideration is Newton’s first and second laws of motion: an object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an outside force; the force (F) on an object is related to the mass (m) and acceleration (a) of the object, or F=ma. Without an outside force, a sled at rest stays at rest and will not accelerate. Another important factor is friction as it impacts the sled speed. Finally, gravity is another factor to consider when thinking about sledding. This attraction force is present while sledding and pulls the sled down the hill.

​Two maps of Switzerland show population centers compared with seismic activity in the country between 1975 and 2014.

​Engineering Connection

Whenever products are being developed for human needs, many factors need to be taken into consideration. In this activity, you will, like engineers, be concerned with the sled’s safety as well as how it handles load, speed, and distance. Because government regulations exist for the construction of any public transportation, students and engineers must understand these project constraints. Therefore, safety is a top priority in their design and construction. For situations in which citizens need rescue equipment, manufacturers must ensure top quality. Typically, appropriate testing measures for durability, speed, and distance are regulated by watchdog groups and government entities.

Learning Objectives

After this activity, I can:

• Research scientific resources.

• Sketch a sled design.

• Create and build a prototype sled.

• Demonstrate tests for speed and distance.

• Describe what a natural disaster is.

• Discuss safety issues.

• Complete a technical report. 

• Calculate speed of an object when given distance and time.

Oklahoma Academic Standards

Apply scientific and engineering ideas to design, evaluate, and refine a device that minimizes the force on a macroscopic object during a collision.

​PS.PS2.3

Analyze and interpret data to support the claim of a causal relationship between the net force on an object and its change in motion as described in Newton’s second law of motion.

​PS.PS2.1

​Key Vocabulary

acceleration: rate of change of velocity with respect to time.

convert: to change into, over, etc.

distance : a numerical measurement of how far apart objects are.

force: any interaction that, when unopposed, will change the motion of the object.

friction: force that resists the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements that slide against each other.

mass: property of a physical body.

natural disaster: a natural event such as a flood, earthquake, or hurricane that causes great damage or loss of life.

prototype: an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process.

seismic: related to the study of earthquakes.

speed: the distance an object travels in a given amount of time.

velocity: rate of change of an object’s position with respect to a give point of reference.

• aluminum foil (30 sq. ft)

• plastic wrap (100 sq. ft)

• Popsicle sticks (100) per class

• cotton balls (100) per class

• additional materials students bring in (will vary)

• ruler (10) per class

• peanut packing (50) per class

• ramp (thick poster board) and supporting material to create the ramp

• protractor (for setting up the ramp at a given angle)

• various recyclable materials

• aluminum cans (10)

• water bottles (10) per class

• sandwich bags (50) per class

• plastic cups (50) per class

Materials List