Designing Unique Balloon-Powered Vehicles

Watch this video as youth build balloon-powered vehicles.

AS YOU WATCH THE VIDEO, THINK ABOUT:

• How is the activity set up to encourage youth to envision multiple solutions and each create a unique design?
• What do the facilitators do or say to encourage youth to consider multiple solutions?
• What evidence do you see that youth are invested in redesigning and improving their designs?

NOW THAT YOU’VE WATCHED THE VIDEO, REFLECT ON WHAT YOU SAW.  HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO YOUR WORK?

Engineers tackle open-ended problems that rarely have only one possible solution – this means they need to think creatively and consider different ways to approach the problem.

• How can the design or facilitation of the activity encourage youth to develop a sense of agency or ownership of their designs and the motivation to improve their design?
• How can you set up activities in your space so that youth can consider and try out multiple solutions to engineering challenges?  (e.g., Instead of designing a balloon-powered car, youth can design balloon-powered vehicles.)

Design challenges with many different solutions foster creativity, problem solving, and innovative thinking.