Lesson 36 of 84 · Engineering and Design
Experiment⭐ 30 XP🛠️ Engineer ShopThe Electromagnetic Spectrum (Part 2)
Engineering and Design.
🎯 Your mission
Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).
⚡ The twist
Every solution creates a new problem. That's good — that's the next project.
Mind = Blown
🌉 The Eiffel Tower can grow 6 inches taller in summer because metal expands when hot.
Make a hypothesis first
Predict: which design will hold the most weight?
What You'll Learn
Sound is a vibration that travels through matter as a wave. It cannot travel through a vacuum. Sound travels fastest through solids and slowest through gases.
Key Words
- constraint
- criteria
Materials Needed
- markers
- popsicle sticks
- pennies
Safety First
- Work in a well-ventilated area when using vinegar or other strong-smelling substances.
- Dispose of materials properly after the experiment.
Steps
Review the background information on Engineering and Design before starting.
Design an experiment to test a hypothesis. Identify your independent variable, dependent variable, and controls. Run the experiment and present results.
Note any unexpected results and think about why they happened.
Share your findings with the class or a partner and discuss what you learned.
Check Your Understanding
Question 1
1 of 3What determines the pitch of a sound?
Where you see this in real life
Every bridge, building, and gadget you've ever used started with this.
Stretch Challenge
Try this in real life this week.
Find something that's broken at home and try to figure out *why* it broke.
For the dinner table
“What's something around the house you'd redesign — and how?”
Next Smart Experiment
We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.
Share this experiment
Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.
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