Thomson Intermediate's Celsius Planetary Rover team placed 1st and designed a car that could travel the farthest, battle rough terrain, and carry the required payload. Congratulations Celsius Planetary Rover.
Calera Intermediate's The Dream Team earned 2nd Place.
|
Vestavia Hills Central Dynamites took 3rd Place.
PLANETARY ROVER CHALLENGE
You are part of NASA’s Surface Landing Team for their next planetary exploration mission. NASA has not yet determined to what planet the mission will travel making your task of developing a rover which is able to travel on all types of planetary surfaces and withstand varying conditions a bit more complicated. Speed will not be a factor for your planetary rover, but your team may want to study how weight, inclines, and design affect distance and deplete power.
There will be size, material, and time constraints that the planet mission team will provide teams at a future date. Teams are also encouraged to practice with a budget and review a rubric to determine the roles of each team member and to take note of the values placed on different design aspects. |
USE the below link to prepare your teams: practice concepts, analyze questions, revise designs, and problem solve:
www.thunderboltkids.co.za/Grade6/04-earth-and-beyond/chapter4.html
www.thunderboltkids.co.za/Grade6/04-earth-and-beyond/chapter4.html
We should start by asking some questions...
- How far will it have to travel?
- What is the terrain like?
- What and/or who will it have to carry?
- What tasks will it have to perform?
- In what ways can we power the rover?
NEXT GENERATION STANDARDS:
3-PS2-2 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.
4-PS3-1 Energy Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
3-5-ETS1-1 Engineering Design Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
3-5-ETS1-2 Engineering Design Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
3-5-ETS1-3 Engineering Design Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
3-PS2-2 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.
4-PS3-1 Energy Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
3-5-ETS1-1 Engineering Design Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
3-5-ETS1-2 Engineering Design Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
3-5-ETS1-3 Engineering Design Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
