The Design Process

Lab Brief #7

🎯 Your mission

Run the experiment. Find out what really happens.

⚡ The twist

The first design always fails. That's the point.

What you'll learn

The engineering design process: identify the problem, brainstorm ideas, build, test, and improve!

Key words

design
A plan you make to build or test something on purpose.
problem
A question or difficulty that needs to be solved.

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: what's the weakest part of this build?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

aluminum foil
pennies

⚠️ Safety first

Have an adult check your set-up before you start, and tidy everything away afterwards.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Look at the new words. Can you say each one?

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Design a boat from foil that can hold the most pennies without sinking.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Look for something that changed. What is it?

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Circle the correct answer on your worksheet.

Question 1 of 3

What is the first step of the design process?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

After you test a design, what do you do next?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

Brainstorming means:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🚀 The Saturn V rocket burned 20 tons of fuel per second at liftoff.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: What Is a Prototype?All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: Your phone, your bike, your shoes — all designed with this idea.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Build something — anything — out of stuff in your recycling bin.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's something around the house you'd redesign — and how?”

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The Design Process

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