In Grade 8 Design class, students are working as trainee engineers to design and build a lightweight water tank using only newspaper, popsicle sticks, and masking tape. The goal is to create a tank that can hold 200 mL of water for three minutes without leaking or collapsing, using the least amount of material possible. Each team is limited to one sheet of newspaper, four popsicle sticks, and 80 cm of tape, with a maximum total mass of 18 grams. So far, students have completed Criteria B, where they developed ideas and selected the best possible design solution. They are now moving on to Criteria C, where they will begin constructing and testing their prototypes. Teams will gather data during testing and analyze how well their tanks meet the design challenge. Efficiency will be calculated by dividing the amount of water held after three minutes by the total mass of materials used. This hands-on project encourages creative problem-solving and resourceful thinking under real-world constraints.
