We had a great time at all three Middle School and Elementary School Challenges this year. We ended the Challenge at Oregon State University’s Cascade Campus where elementary students learned about predator and prey relationships. AmeriCorps volunteers helped the students create habitats to help demonstrate these relationships. Check out their work below and on our Facebook page. Students also had a great time touring Central Oregon Community College and continued to make awesome solar ovens. We hope to see you next year!
This year’s challenge was focused around solar energy. Middle school students made solar ovens and we were impressed with their results. While at Portland Community College, the elementary school students were introduced to exciting areas of study like physics, chemistry, biology for management of zoo animals, chemistry, and veteranary technician. It looks like a fun time was had by all. Be sure to check out more pictures on our Facebook page.
Like many IME activities in the past, we have talked about assembly lines. Usually, the activity includes pre-made instructions for each step of the assembly process. However, in this activity students get to create their own. How do you divide work evenly among each step in the assembly line? Is an assembly line cost effective? Students will get to discover this for themselves in this activity.
What is line balancing? It is when each person/workstation has a specific task to complete in order to make a product. The goal in line balancing is to complete a task in a specified amount of time so production does not fall behind. That is the main task in this IME lesson plan. Students must construct a “house” in a specified amount of time. But what do you do if you know you cannot make the time goal given? What would you compromise on? Ask your students these questions while going through the following material:
This is another great activity made for us by our IME Team. In this activity, students will use LEGOs to design the most cost effective airplane without compromising on function. See the links below to run this activity in your classroom:
This year, like previous years, our IME Team has made several lesson plans to share. This Optimization Methods Activity focuses on the most efficient path to travel, much like engineers do. Below are the materials to run this exciting activity.
April showers bring May flowers right? Well how exactly do we measure such a thing? This article describes this processes. But why do we care? Right now throughout Oregon many cities are experiencing a drought while others are not. For cities that are, how much rain do you normally get this time of year? How many inches of rain would you need to catch up? For those that are not experiencing a drought, how much rain are you experiencing? These are great questions to ask your students.
