Ship the Chip

Student Worksheet: 
Ship the Chip

 Engineering Teamwork and Planning

You are a team of manufacturing engineers given the challenge of designing the smallest, lightest package of all the engineering teams in your classroom that will protect a single potato chip shipped through the mail from a remote location to your school.  

 Planning and Design Phase

Each team has been provided with a set of materials.  Review these as a group and draw your packaging design in the box below or use another page.  Think about package strength, size, and weight as you design your package. You might want to consider how well your package will survive if it finds itself at the bottom of a stack of heavy boxes during shipping! There are also several rules you must follow, which your teacher will review with you so your package is not disqualified.

	

 Construction Phase
Build your package, and then complete the questions below:

1.  How similar was your design to the actual package you built.  

2. If you found you needed to make changes during the construction phase, describe why you made revisions.

 Shipping Phase
Your teacher will devise a shipping system for all the packages created in your classroom. 
      Ship the Chip

Student Worksheet: Evaluation

 Evaluation Phase
Once all packages have arrived at your school, you will work in teams to evaluate the packages.

 Scoring
The following three measurements must be made for each incoming package: 
1.	Mass of the package in Kg's to at least 3 significant figures. 
2.	Volume of the package in cubic centimeters to at least 3 significant figures. 
3.	Intactness score of the chip on the following scale:
100 Points: like new, perfect
50 Points: slightly damaged; cracked but still in one piece
10 Points: broken in 2 - 5 pieces
5 Points: broken in 6-20 pieces  
1 Point: broken into more than 20 pieces; crumbled

Determine the overall score for each package to determine the top scoring "engineering team."  Use the following equation: 

                                   Intactness score (c) 
Overall Score = _________________________ 
                       [mass in Kg (a) x volume in cc (b)] 

Example: a. mass = 0.145 kg  b. volume = 240 cc  c. intactness score = 100 
Overall Score:  (c) 100 / [(a) 0.145 kg x (b) 240 cc]   =  2.87 

Make a chart to keep track of the packages for each engineering team in your class and see who has the best overall score.

Package ID #	Mass (KG)	Volume (CC) 	Intactness Score	Overall Score	

 Reflection
1. What aspect of the design of the package that had the best overall score do you think lead to its success?

2. If you had a chance to do this project again, what would your team have done differently?

 Presentation
As a group, make a presentation to the class about what you learned during this activity.