Grade 1, Semester 1

Housing for a growing population represents a significant use of resources; therefore

housing for the future must employ the smartest and most efficient use of materials and
technologies. The makeup of all living organisms, form and function, ensure the
sustainability of the species. While this is true for humans, we additionally depend on
Earth’s land, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere for many different resources. Minerals,
fresh water, and biosphere resources are limited, and many are not renewable or
replaceable over human lifetimes.
Essential Question: How can Egypt use its arid regions to reduce urban congestion?

Design Challenge

One of the Egyptian Grand Challenges is to improve use of arid areas. To support this
Challenge, you are asked to design and build a physical prototype of a dwelling appropriate
for development in arid areas. To prepare for this work, study arid areas suitable for
development and identify three (3) or more appropriate design requirements for a dwelling
that will be expected to withstand Egypt’s environmental forces and is aesthetically
appealing.
One of your design requirements must be chosen from the following topics: (1) Optimum
use of materials for your dwelling, (2) Minimizing the temperature change inside your
dwelling, or (3) Identify a testable design requirement for your dwelling that connects to a
learning outcome. You will design a way to test, measure and record data about your
dwelling for the design requirement you choose.
1. Optimum use of materials: Design and test an approach that maximizes the ratio of
the volume of your dwelling to its weight. Your structure must be able to support a
_____ placed on its top surface.
2. Minimizing the temperature change inside your dwelling: Test the change in
temperature inside your dwelling as a function of change in temperature outside your
dwelling.
3. Identify a testable design requirement for your dwelling: Design and implement a test
that will measure the change about your dwelling for the design requirement.
You will have the following design constraints:
1. Use ONLY material supplied in the School’s Capstone Kit and in the School’s
Capstone Material resources
2. Your dwelling’s “footprint” must not exceed 0.5 m 2
Grade 2, Semester 1

Students will study the chemistry and physics of water, their own uses of water and the
impact of the availability and quality of water to their health. They will study the story of
water over the course of the history of Egypt and project into the future including impacts on
the social, economic, political systems as well as general population health, growth and
industrial growth.
Essential Question: How can Egypt address its many water needs for all of its people in a
safe and environmentally responsible manner?

Design Challenge

Reducing pollution and improving sources of clean water are two of Egypt’s Grand
Challenges. To contribute to the work underway in this area, you are asked to identify a real
potable water problem. This water problem may involve access to the many varied ways to
engineer potable water. Design a small scale or large scale water treatment and/or
management system to be applied to address the problem. Be prepared to demonstrate the
potential success of your solution through a testable hardware prototype or testable
software prototype that tests 1 or 2 of your solution design requirements.
Constraints:
1. Stay within the capstone budget
2. Test 1 or 2 design requirements (number of design requirements tested does not
influence the grade)
3. Grade 2 teams may make hardware prototypes or software prototypes (simulations)
4. You are encouraged to learn from your Grade 3 classmates who also focused on
water last year. You may use their work as a starting point for your own. But you
must cite their work (give them credit) and you must demonstrate that you have
contributed your own work to your solution.
Grade 2, Semester 2

Egypt's many industries are changing and evolving, and there are many opportunities to
improve them. "Systems and Feedback" is a theme across the subjects in your curriculum
in this semester. A system is a set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole.
These parts have inputs connect to processes that yield outputs, often with feedback into
other parts to improve the performance of the system.
Essential Question:

Design Challenge

Select an industry in Egypt that you would like to improve. Research this industry to find an
opportunity for improvement. Propose a solution and prepare a testable prototype that
relates to the change you are proposing and addresses testable design requirements that
you select.
Your solution must also include the following:
1. When finding an opportunity for improvement, select one measurable improvement,
such as cost efficiency or time efficiency or resource efficiency or reduced
environmental impact. You may select more than one, but you will be evaluated on
only one improvement you have selected.
2. Describe how your solution fits into the system of the industry chosen, and show the
interfaces between your solution and the other parts of that system. Identify where
there is feedback, if any, to improve the operation of the system.
You are permitted to use work from a previous Capstone to inspire this Capstone provided
you build new work on the old work to meet the requirements above. You are also permitted
to include how you might turn prior capstone work into a small business provided you also
meet the requirements listed above.
Grade 3, Semester 1

Communication comes in many forms. One simple definition ofcommunication is the

exchanging of information. While we think about electronic and electromagnetic
communications between people, we can also think about biological and chemical
communication systems within and between living organisms and other natural systems.
Essential Question: How does an understanding of biological and chemical systems for
transferring information (communications) lead to solving problems?

Design Challenge

Select one or more of Egypt’s Grand Challenges (no additional points are given for having
addressing more than one Grand Challenge). Identify one or more problems to address (no
additional points are given for addressing more than one problem). Select a problem or a
solution that contains the theme of communication in biological or chemical systems as
defined in the Big Idea. Identify design requirements for a successful solution to the
problem, then select a small set of those design requirements and develop a testable
prototype within the financial, time and resource constraints of your semester. You should
be able to connect your prototype to your larger solution and the theme of communication.
You may address a problem within these biological/chemical systems or use these systems
to inform a solution man-made communication systems.
Examples of Capstone types (This is an incomplete list. There are many more):
1. Communication systems between parts of human body (Eg. nervous system)
2. Communication between plant parts within a plant or between plants
3. Communication between animals (bees, ants, others using chemical information)
4. DNA
5. Entropy and information transfer
6. Nature’s use of light for communicating information between living organisms and
systems
7. Electromagnetic sensors on sharks