Cool Designs from NYC Spring Family Science Sessions

This spring, New York City studio ran four different 5-week Family Science sessions with our partner schools. In these sessions, families learned about Electrical Engineering, the Engineering of Transportation, and Biomimicry and were able to work together to build models based on different design challenges. We had a lot of productive learning experiences and amazing designs come from these sessions, so I wanted to share a few of them here.

First, let me briefly talk about the general components I saw in many successful Family Science designs. At these sessions, the engineering concept was taught in a way that allowed for open-ended creation, contained models that kids of all ages could be a part of and products that we were able to test for real-life situations. Ultimately, I think that Family Science designs that did not allow for variation or that needed families to follow formulaic steps did not tend to facilitate deep learning experiences for our participants.

Okay, enough about the theory—lets talk about some cool designs!

Propeller-Powered Vehicles Capable of Flight: For this Engineering of Transportation design challenge, families were asked to build a propeller that uses torque to power the balloon in vertical flight. Participants were able to draw upon their knowledge of helicopters and other vehicles, like ships, that use propellers to create their own models (hopefully) capable of flight. This design was fun for families because they were able to easily test the success of their design—how long could it stay in the air? Then, redesign was fun and immediately impactful. We had multiple designs that created a propeller-operated system able to stay in the air for more than 10 seconds!