Activity 3.

6 Design Challenge: Fling Machine

Introduction
There are many ways to solve a problem. Sometimes it is as simple as applying a piece of duct tape.
Other times it takes months or years for a product to progress from an idea into full-scale production. In
this activity your team will quickly design and build a device that will successfully launch a Ping-Pong
ball 10 times to hit the desired target.

Equipment
 Paper
 Pencil
 Scissors
 timer

Materials (may vary)

 rubber bands
 paper clips
 aluminum foil
 coffee stir sticks
 straws
 pipe cleaners
 cardboard
 pop sickle sticks
 Any other instructor approved materials…
Problem
Using only the materials provided, design and build a device that will successfully launch a Ping-Pong
ball 10 times to hit the desired target.
Procedure
1. Your team will devise a solution and document the solution both in writing and in graphical form with a
drawing/sketches (Eng. Notebook).
2. Your team will build your solution.
3. Your team will test your solution. Record the number of hits/misses by the ping pong ball (hit =
striking an area +/-12” from 10’/miss = anything outside of that zone). A minimum of ten
attempts must be made. Record distance projectile strikes from the 10’ line for each miss to the
nearest inch.
4. Finally, your team will have one attempt to demonstrate your solution for final evaluation. Device must
launch a ping pong ball 10 times at the target to qualify as being successful.
5. Use the design process learned in Unit 1. Document each step in your engineering notebook as you
complete this design challenge.

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Introduction to Engineering Design Activity 3.6 Instant Challenge: Fling Machine – Page 1
Criteria:
Your success on this challenge will be based on the performance of your design and the design criteria
provided.

 Device must launch the Ping-Pong ball with as little human involvement as possible (Device must
do the work!)
 Device must make 10 successful attempts on game day. (One minute to set up, then 30
seconds to make each attempt.)
 At no point during the testing process shall any part of the device pass the start line…
 Device must be unquestionably safe…

Scoring
Two grades will be assessed. One grade is for performance. The other grade is for durability/testability.

10/10
Performance: 50 10 attempts
Durability: 50
7-9/10 45 DNF 30
4-6/10 35
1- 3/10 30
0/10 25
Incomplete/nothing submitted: 0

Points: /100 Pts.

Presentation of Data
Your team must collect data that validates your teams design. You must use data to come to a complete
conclusion about your design… Good, bad, indifferent?

Data must show how accurate and/or precise your device is…

2-5 MINUTE PRESENTATION:

Please be ready to present on the following topics on the final day:
 Proper introduction/appearance
 Show/discuss Initial concepts/ideas/design work (How did your team come to the final
solution before construction was started?)
 An evaluation of your product/project using data to justify your claims
 Problems/issues you encountered and how you overcame them
 Things you learned in doing this project (“major take-a-ways”)
 Proper conclusion

Presentation: Outstanding Proficient Basic Incomplete

50/50 40/50 30/50 0/50

Total Points: /150 Pts.

© 2012 Project Lead The Way, Inc.

Introduction to Engineering Design Activity 3.6 Instant Challenge: Fling Machine – Page 2
Conclusion
1. Analyze the ping pong ball travel distance data that you collected.
a. Record the travel distances of the ping pong ball that you measured during the testing phase
below and create a dot plot of your data.

b. Create a histogram of your data using five class intervals.

c. Is the data normally distributed? Justify your answer.

d. Calculate the mean, median, range and sample standard deviation of the travel distances of
the cotton ball.

e. Give a range of travel distances within which you would predict that 95% of all cotton balls
launched with your device would fall. For example, you might predict that 95% of the cotton
balls that you launch would travel between 2.25 ft. and 3.00 ft. Justify your answer.

2. Do you feel that the statistical analysis results would be a better measure of performance when
comparing alternate devices that the distance traveled by a cotton ball in a single attempt? Why or why
not?

© 2012 Project Lead The Way, Inc.

Introduction to Engineering Design Activity 3.6 Instant Challenge: Fling Machine – Page 3
3. How would you recommend using the results of your statistical analysis of travel distances to assess
device performance (rather than giving points for the distance of the single attempt allowed in the
challenge)?

4. If you had the opportunity to optimize your design, how would you increase the distance that the cotton
ball moves?

5. If you had the opportunity to optimize your design, how would reduce the amount of materials used?

6. How could you improve the effectiveness of your team?

© 2012 Project Lead The Way, Inc.

Introduction to Engineering Design Activity 3.6 Instant Challenge: Fling Machine – Page 4