SESSION 2: HELPING HAND Ready for the next challenge? Build a device with a long handle that can grab something hanging high! This week you ll also check out your Partner Club s Paper Structure designs. OVERVIEW 1. Helping Hand Challenge (50 min.) Design and Build: Create devices that can grab something hanging high on the wall. Share and Discuss: Evaluate the Helping Hand designs and think about how the design process helped you create them. 2. Partner Exchange (10 min.) Paper Structure Designs: Clubs exchange info about their Paper Structure designs from the previous session. Partner Project Introduction: Clubs start thinking about the Partner Project the multi-week engineering challenge kids will collaborate on. World of Questions: A quick Q&A with your Partner Club. DSG Videos: Making Life Easier for All of Us. If you have more time, watch related Design Squad videos. GOALS FOR THIS SESSION Engineering Explore how a lever functions and learn to identify its parts. Develop kids problem-solving skills and persistence, familiarity with the design process, and appreciation of trial-and-error and testing. Connect kids designs with real-world needs by having them brainstorm alternative uses for their Helping Hands. Global Competency Compare ideas and perspectives with Partner Clubs through their first exchange of engineering designs. 14
SESSION 2: PREPARE AHEAD OF TIME Helping Hand Challenge Design and build a device with a long handle that can grab a bag hanging high on a wall. What s inside the bags? Prizes... and in one bag, a packet from your Partner Club with information about last session s activity, Paper Structure! 1. Collect the Materials Surprise Bags (per person) small paper or plastic bags with small, lightweight prizes (puzzles, balls, stickers, etc.) a small Partner Exchange packet with your Partner Club s Paper Structure designs: photos, sketches, or diagrams (include prizes in this bag as well) Prepare bags: Using a piece of masking tape, lightly fasten the Surprise Bags and the Partner Exchange Packet bag to a wall, ceiling, or other high spot a few feet above kids heads where it s not too difficult to remove bag with the grabbers. Note: If your packet of Paper Structure material is too heavy for the bag to stay fastened, place just one or two pieces of paper in the bag. Bring out the rest of the Partner Exchange material at the end of the session when you re ready to discuss it. Helping Hand Materials (per person or pair) There are many possibilities for designs; kids are likely to use only some of the materials you supply. 4 6 paint stirrers (found at paint supply or hardware stores) or thin wooden slats. (See Prepare Stirrers below.) 3 or 4 brass fasteners/split pins tape (duct or masking) one or two pieces of corrugated cardboard (corrugated cardboard has grooves in the middle, like a cardboard shipping box) scissors rubber/elastic bands string paper or polystyrene cups toothpicks wooden skewers/sosatie sticks For demonstrating levers: collect devices that open and close (scissors, pliers, cooking tongs, hair clips, tweezers, binder clips) Partner Project: Define a Need handout 15
Design Process poster chart paper for making the More Helping Hands list World of Questions graphic DSG Notebook and pencil Prepare Stirrers: Because this is tricky and time consuming for kids, we suggest Club Leaders do this ahead of time. Using a pair of scissors (or a screwdriver or drill), make small holes in half the stirrers. Place the holes in the middle of some stirrers, and near the ends in others. Turn and twist one blade of a pair of scissors in one spot until it goes through to the other side. As kids design and build, you may need to make more holes for them. 2. Try the Activity Yourself There are many ingenious and varied ways to build the grabbers. One good way to start is by connecting two paint stirrers with a brass fastener to make a lever. The cups, rubber bands, string, skewers, toothpicks, and other materials can be used to make and operate the part of the arms that grips the bag. Note: Kids will try knocking the bags with a long stick; this doesn t count. The challenge is to grab or grip the bag to remove it. Distribution of Prizes The prizes in the Surprise Bags will generate plenty of excitement! You may want to wait to distribute the prizes in the Surprise Bags until the end of the session. Definitely wait until the last part of the session before allowing kids to examine the Partner Exchange materials in one of the bags. 3. Check in with Your Partner Set aside a time to talk about the upcoming session with your Partner Leader. Plan what photos and other information you ll both gather during the activity to exchange later. Suggestions: Activity: Photos of grabbers, both close-up and in action More Helping Hands List: At the end of the activity, kids brainstorm a list of More Helping Hands ideas in their DSG Notebooks 16
Partner Project Introduction: In this session, you ll be introducing the Partner Project. Over the next three weeks, clubs will exchange ideas and decide on an issue in their communities that they ll work on together. You ll send kids home with a handout and their DSG Notebooks and have them research issues in their communities. The Partner Project is very open-ended: kids will decide with their Partner Club who they want to design for, what challenge they want to tackle, and why they chose that project in the first place they ll agree on all these decisions together. LEAD THE SESSION 1. HELPING HAND CHALLENGE (50 min.) Tell kids about this session s activity: Today, you will design and build a device that lets you grab a bag hanging high on a wall or ceiling. Your device must be able to open and close to remove the bag it can t be a hook or stick that pulls or knocks down the bag. What s inside the bag? Prizes! And in one special bag, there s a packet of information from your partner about their Paper Structure activity! Define the Need (5 min.) Start with a discussion: Tell kids that to grab something, a device needs two parts or arms that can go on each side of the item being grabbed. The grabber also needs to have a way to press the two arms together to make a pinching motion. Show them the different devices you ve collected as examples. Have volunteers demonstrate and describe how they work. Explain that each of these devices is a lever, with a fulcrum and arms. Point these out on a scissors and tongs. Ask: Can you explain how levers help make our lives easier? (For example: tongs make it easier for people to pick up and hold hot food. It s easier to cut paper with scissors than a tool like a knife.) Brainstorm and Design (5 min.) Show kids the materials they have to work with and ask: How can you make a grabbing device that opens and closes so it can grip the bag? How will you make your grabber long enough to reach the bag? 17
How will you be able to control the grabbing motion when it's at the end of the stick? Have kids brainstorm ideas and sketch the ones they want to build in their DSG Notebooks. Build, Test, Evaluate & Redesign (30 min.) Have kids work individually or in pairs. Display the Design Process poster and ask them to refer to is as they: Build the grabber. Test it by trying to pick up different objects. Evaluate any problems they encounter and then redesign. Use the Helping Hand to remove a bag from the wall. It must grip or grab the bag or handle; knocking the bag down doesn t count. The DSG motto is Fail fast succeed sooner! Ask kids what they think that means. Explain that testing and redesigning will be especially important with this activity. Testing is the way they ll find out if their design works or not. Each time they test their grabber and it doesn t work, they have a chance to learn how to improve it. Problem-Solving Tips When kids get stuck or feel frustrated, rather than offering them solutions right away, encourage them to think for themselves. Some problems they may run into: Arms open but don t close... or close but don t open. Try rubber bands, string, or skewers to help make the device open or close. It keeps dropping things. Make sure it closes tightly enough to actually hold something. Also, see if the arms are shaped right to have a firm grip. Paper cups, skewers, dowels, or cardboard may help make hands at the end of the arms that can grip something. Arms bend or twist. Reinforce them with something stiff. Share and Discuss (10 min.) Have kids present their designs and demonstrate how they function. Ask: What s the best feature of your design? Where can you find examples of levers in your grabbers? Explain how they work. What steps of the design process did you use? How did they help you improve your design? What are some ways you tested your design to see how it worked? What did you learn from testing? If you had more time to work on your design, how would you improve it? 18
Brainstorm More Helping Hands Next, you ll have kids brainstorm different uses for their Helping Hands. Tell them: Besides making it easier to reach for a bag of prizes, can you think of other situations where having a Helping Hand with a long handle would be helpful? Let s make a list: Who else could the helping hand help? What need would it help them with? How would you need to redesign or adjust it to make it work for this new purpose? As they brainstorm, write kids ideas on the chart paper. Point out that engineering isn t always about inventing new things; sometimes it s about coming up with a new use for an existing invention. Examples: More Helping Hands For? Why? kids messy room janitors trash around school dog owners pooper scooper needed field workers picking fruit on trees grandparents trouble bending down to reach things When kids are done brainstorming, tell them: The Helping Hand you designed is what s called an assistive device it helps you do things you couldn t otherwise do easily. Engineers and inventors have created some amazing assistive devices for people who are sick, injured, disabled, or elderly. Wheelchairs, prosthetic arms and legs, computer programs that make speech possible these are just some of the ways technology can make life better for people facing challenges. 2. PARTNER EXCHANGE (10 min.) Paper Structure Designs (5 min.) Have whoever grabbed the bag with the Paper Structure designs from your Partner Club show them to the group. Ask: Do you see any similarities between your Paper Structure designs and your Partner Club s? What are they? Which of their designs seem the strongest and sturdiest? Why do you think so? What about their designs surprised you? Why? Partner Project Introduction (5 min.) Although kids won t be working on it for several weeks, it s time to get them to start thinking about what they d like to focus on for the final project and why. Pass out the Partner Project handout and tell kids: You and your Partner Club will work on a final project together later on in the club. Together, you ll decide on an issue in your community that needs design solutions. To get ready for it, 19
spend the next week thinking about issues in your community. On the handout, you ll see seven questions: How can we as young engineers and inventors in our community help...... people stay healthy?... people stay safe?... protect the environment? reduce the amount of energy or resources used?... improve our school?... make older people s lives better?... make children s lives better? Which of these questions are you passionate about? What issues would you like to focus on? Why are they important to you? The next time we meet, we ll talk more about the issues. As a club, we ll choose three issues we re interested in working on. Our Partner Club will let us know which issues they think are important and we will decide together which one we will both work on. World of Questions Display the World of Questions graphic. Answer questions: Have kids read aloud any questions your Partner Club sent about your club, community, or country, and ask kids to answer them. Ask new questions: Using the graphic, encourage kids to ask two or three questions about the kids in their Partner Club or about their community or country. You ll include the answers and new questions in the Partner Exchange. AFTER THE SESSION: PARTNER EXCHANGE Collect material to send to your Partner Club. Share kids Helping Hands designs. Send along their list of More Helping Hands it will be interesting to compare the different uses Partner Clubs brainstormed for this device, demonstrating its real-world application. Include questions and answers from the World of Questions 20