Iteration with Balloon-Powered Vehicle
Watch this video as youth design, build, test and redesign their balloon-powered vehicles.
As you watch the video, here are two things to think about.
- Notice how youth are evaluating the designs and decided what works and what they need to change.
- Notice how the facilitators talk with youth about their ideas and what changes they want to make.
Now that you’ve watched the video, reflect on what you saw. How does this apply to your work?
- How is this activity organized to encourage youth to evaluate and improve their balloon-powered vehicles? What strategies could you use?
- How can you create a learning culture that encourages evaluation and iteration?
Engineers test their designs to see how they work. They collect and analyze data to revise and improve solutions in an iterative process. When they have the supplies and time that they need, youth can also evaluate their designs, iterate, and improve their ideas.
Explore Engineering Practices
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Learning To Fail
See how staff help youth learn from their failed attempts to build a grape smasher and help them revise and improve the designs.
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DIVEE
Lemond uses an acronym, DIVEE, and rhythm to make the engineering design process more accessible to youth.
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Affirming Youth During Retesting
Watch as staff encourage youth to investigate how they designed their package, what did or didn’t work with their design, and how they might adapt for re-testing. Staff support youth’s abilities and encourage youth to work with their team and develop their own solutions for re-testing their designs.