Design Brief

STEM Challenge

COVID Communication Crisis!

Introduction

In Science this term, we have been learning about how light

and sound travels, and as a result, how we can see and hear
things.

We learnt that light is projected from a source, it hits an

object and illuminates it, and bounces off that same object
to reach our eyes.

We also learnt that sound is caused by objects vibrating.

Those vibrations cause whatever is next to them to also
vibrate. Like a ripple effect, those vibrations carry through
the air to eventually reach our ears.

When sound reaches our ears, and light reaches our eyes,
our brains process what we see and what we hear!

Mission Brief

The WA Premier, Mark McGowan, has realised that the

situation with COVID-19 is about to become really bad, and
the only way for us all to be safe is if we self-isolated in our
own rooms.

You still want to communicate with your family in the other

rooms, but you need to figure out how to do this!
Generating Designs

Using your knowledge of what we have learned about light

and sound, your mission is to work in pairs to either:

- Design a device that allows you to communicate with

your family members in other rooms, without leaving
your own room;

OR

- Design a new, fancy house that allows you to

communicate with your family using light and sound,
also without leaving your own room. You will not be
building an actual house, but you will be building a
model of this house

** THIS IS NOT A REAL-LIFE SITUATION YEAR ONES, THIS

IS FOR YOU TO HAVE A LITTLE FUN WITH INVENTING**

Project Specifications

If you are building a device that allows to you to

communicate, you have to demonstrate how it uses sound,
or light, or both, to help you communicate.

If you are building a model house, you must use a shoebox

to represent your house.
The following materials will be provided to you to help you
build your models:

- Shoeboxes
- Cups
- String
- Small LED Torches (Be careful not to shine these into
other people’s eyes)
- Cellophane
- Different cloth materials
- Shoeboxes
- Popsticks
- Skewers
- Pipe Cleaners
- Styrofoam balls
- Glue
- Scissors (ask an adult for help if you need to use these)
- Milk Cartons
- Empty Cereal Boxes
- Plus more!
Project Management (What you need to complete)

1. Plans and drawings of what your design is going to

look like. We will be looking at how to draw
diagrams in class.
You can complete many designs if you want, but
you and your partner will have to pick your
favourite design. Once you have picked a design,
you can move on to the next step.

2. Building a model of your design. We will have a

few lessons for you to carry out this.

The materials in the list above will be available for

you on the day, but if you need something else,
make sure to tell me by Week 6 so I can go buy it.

It is okay if your model is different from your

design, but if it is, make sure you remember why
you made the changes

3. An explanation of how it works.

You can either record yourself speaking, or type it

on an app of your choice.
 4. Evaluate your design. You will have to complete
this by yourself, after you have completed all of
the above steps.
a. What parts of your design worked well, or
what were you were most proud of?
b. What was the hardest part to work on in
your design? How could you change it if you
were to do this activity again?
c. Does your final design look like your plan?
What changes did you make (if any) and why
did you have to change it?
d. How well did you and your partner work
together?
i. Did you feel that your partner and you
both contributed equally? If not, list
examples of why you believe this
ii. Did you have any other issues with your
partner? If so, what happened?

Time: 5-6 Lessons.