Day 4: Are System parts vital? & Green Roofs

Are all parts of a system vital?  When one considers a pencil, area all the parts necessary for its ability to function?  The students were roughly split on this idea, as some felt the eraser was necessary, and others argued that all one truly needed to write was the graphite/lead.

Students were given time to research a system as a group, and then present the parts of that system and argue whether all of its parts are vital.

We also watched a video: Green Roofs.  This taught us a little about the reasoning & design behind these types of roofs.  Each group was then challenged to build a model given the following parameters:

 40 index cards
1 roll of masking tape12 inches of foil**Building must be at least 9 inches tall

Sphagnum mossgravelpotting soil

They had 5 minutes to plan as a group, and only 30 minutes for construction.  Their finished building had to be able to hold 1 cup of water  = no runoff, and able to support the weight of the saturated roof.

We had some grand ideas, but not one was totally successful.  Students recorded ideas for improvement in their Engineering Journals, and will have another opportunity next week to implement their improvements.  

Pre "Rain"

Post "Rain"