Sunshine State Standard

SC.C.2.3.3

Materials

A------For Planning Their Design-----A Paper Pencil Metric ruler Protractor (optional) B-------------the Lander------------B Marbles (as many as 5/group) Round toothpicks (lots of them) Wire cutters (or anything that will cleanly and efficiently cut the toothpicks) White glue C------------The Parachute-----------C Light string Light material (to be used for making the parachute) Scissors D-----------For Evaluation-----------D Balance Elevated launch site Target (could be anything from a cardboard box to a loop of string.)

What to do

I. Inform the students that they are to build a "planetary probe" out of toothpicks and glue which will be evaluated based on the following criteria. 1. Mass of lander without marbles (the lighter the better) 2. Strength (it must hold together and protect its "onboard instruments" marbles. It is never good to lose your marbles.) 3. Accuracy (it must land in the target area) 4. Visibility of the marbles (if you can't see the instruments, how can they see you?) 5. Number of marbles delivered by the lander. (the more experiments which can be done by one probe the more cost effective it is.) II. Using the materials listed in group A the students will draw a scale (possibly actual size) diagram of the lander they plan to build. III. Using the materials in group B the students will construct a lander which will be capable of the delivering its "instrument payload", marbles, safely to the ground when dropped from a height. IV. Using the materials in group C the students will construct a parachute and attach it to their lander. (If the chute is too big it will waft away from the target and if it is too small the lander could loose its marbles on impact.) V. Move to your elevated launch site, lay out your target, and launch the probe.

Additional Information

1. This is definitely not a one day activity, it should be done over the course of several days since the glue takes time to dry. 2. I have made effective parachutes from materials ranging from old bed sheets to plastic grocery bags. 3. When evaluating the mass of the probe you can measure the mass of the probe with the marbles then subtract the average mass of one of the marbles times the number of marbles in the lander. 4. When evaluating their landers please feel free to use your own judgement on such things as the size of the target area. As a matter of fact please change anything you feel will make this activity work for your situation.

Submitted by

Michael Stookey

Hillsborough County
Tampa, Florida