Anytime you turn on the television or put food in the microwave, you can assume that you’ve directly connected your appliance to the energy grid. Your house is connected to powerlines which go to a powerplant. These powerplants provide energy for every house and building. However, if the powerplant gets destroyed, then we experience a blackout or power outage! This isn’t good at all, as anyone who has experienced a power outage can attest to. Energy engineers work hard to make sure that the buildings that house powerplants can withstand all forms of weather so that they don’t go down. They do this by using new materials, new structures, and new designs. But as every design challenge goes, they are always learning new and better ways to protect the power generation equipment.
The student handout will be given to all students working on the design challenge. It gives a brief recap of the story, it helps the students identify what they are attempting to achieve, and it recaps the design process.
This Instructor’s Guide provides the instructor additional information on how to run the design challenge with alternatives for materials and test setups as well as information to help make the design challenge a good educational experience.
The Telling the Story Video conveys the societal impact of the student’s research that is the basis for the design challenge and will set the problem-solving context for students.
The Design Challenge Video leads students through the design process. It indicates materials available, states what the criteria are for success and any constraints. It also gives a second ‘level’ of the design challenge that allows ‘early completers’ to move on to a slightly more difficult challenge.