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As a bit of fun at dinner last night I set my kids a design challenge - "find a way to mark you pencil case so that if you lost it somebody would be able to get it back to you, but without putting your name and contact details on it."
It was pretty funny, verging on Milliganesque. The aim wasn't to come up with an efficient process, just to think laterally. We had some fun ideas, including QR codes that link to websites, capsules containing hair samples linked to DNA databases, all sorts of nonsense.
Anyway, we had the best family meal in ages and decided we should make it a regular evening game. It might develop a set of loose rules at some point, but I was wondering if anyone had any other unnecessary design challenges i could add in one night?
Excellent. Going to adapt that for Scouts!
Another good one.
Take 20 4x2 stud lego bricks and a mini figure. See how far you can cantilever the mini figure off a table using only the bricks.
a place I worked had a night-shift security guard that would set himself these challenges to get through the night on his own
My favourite was 'Make Commercial Space Travel Affordable" (he was 25 years ahead of the all current billionaire knob rocket nonsense)
So one evening he told me his starting point was that the energy and resources needed to get a rocket from the ground to orbit were cost prohibitive so the solution would be to build a great big tower and launch off the top to save money.
Through the night he worked out how tall a tower would have to be to make a meaningful difference to the cost of a launch, how wide it would need to be at the base in order to be stable, how deep the foundation would be, what volume of concrete that required, how many continuous truck-loads of concrete would have to be poured, how long that would take, how much it would cost, and how many launches you'd need to have made before the savings from launches would offset the investment in the tower
In the morning when I arrive for work he told me 'Its probably not worth it"
Make a self supporting structure from 3 spoons.
(Edit) Seeing as image links don't work any more - look up reciprocal frame.
** sighs **
the solution would be to build a great big tower and launch off the top to save money.
The "sky ladder" idea has been a serious proposition before now, I think NASA flirted with the idea and maybe someone else (Musk?). It's not a wildly insane idea.
Rockets. Rockets rock.
How far/high can you go.
The Samuil Petrovitch new designs for society challenge would be quite interesting.
Find a way to use a different password for every website / service without needing to write it down or trust someone else to remember it for you.
We did one at art college where we had to make a self-supporting structure greater than 6ft tall using just three sheets of broadsheet newspaper (and our choice of adhesive) and another where we had to create one that was 4ft tall using 10 sheets of newspaper that was capable of supporting a house brick.
A slightly different take on it might one I've done as a work exercise. Take a device and try to come up with the most ridiculous way of explaining how it works using the observable information. eg a car - you put in petrol, there is a loud noise under the bonnet and the wheels turn, what is the wackiest way that could that happen?
Another one is to take an everyday object or material and come up with interesting uses for it, way beyond what it was ever intended for.
Take a device and try to come up with the most ridiculous way of explaining how it works
Eg, Twoflower's camera in The Colour of Magic?
Once got the kids to work out (Roughly) how many Jammy Dodgers there were in the 40' Truck of Jammy Dodgers we had just passed.
It was quite a few and it kept them interested in something other than bickering for a while.
Take a device and try to come up with the most ridiculous way of explaining how it works using the observable information
https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/
Eg, Twoflower’s camera in The Colour of Magic?
A normal camera would actually be quite a good example.
Take a device and try to come up with the most ridiculous way of explaining how it works using the observable information.
I think my kids would really enjoy that.
Once got the kids to work out (Roughly) how many Jammy Dodgers there were in the 40′ Truck of Jammy Dodgers we had just passed
I like this too. We do a fair amount of long drives. Multiple 8 hour days, etc. One of the games we've played since the kids were tiny is guessing the contents of the truck. Again it gets pretty silly.
As a teacher we have had fun with all of these. mainly practical, in other words we di them. But some could be conversation only. I have jad most succes with these running a shop to stop people using crzy amounts of stuff. You have a pound. String is 1p a metre Sellotape is £1 etc.
Time a minute not using anything that is designed to time a minute. This could how many ways can you think of timing a minute
Protect an egg from a 2 (or greater) metre fall onto a hard surface
Bridge a gap which can support the greatest load
We have also done sperate ground cork, salt, sand and iron filings (run a recycling centre)
I've just invented this one
You are to be abandoned on an island indefinitely. The climate is fine and you have drinking water. You will have with you the cloths you are wearing and whatever you can buy off amazon for £100. What's in your basket?
^ As a teacher I hope you can usually spell betterer than that 😉
As a teacher I hope you can usually spell betterer than that 😉
A bit. I can see the typos in that which means it's really bad. But I'm quite dyslexic so can't get stuff error free without help. I only teach A-level physics now so the students know to keep me on the straight and narrow
We have also done sperate ground cork, salt, sand and iron filings (run a recycling centre)
Oh, I like this.
Pass over a magnet for the iron filings; you could separate the magnet with a sheet of paper so that it's not then an absolute git to remove filings from the magnet. Tip the rest into a jug of water so the salt dissolves and skim off the floating cork. Pour through a filter paper into a pan to retrieve the sand. Finally, boil the pan dry to recover the salt.
How did I do? Any better ways?
You are to be abandoned on an island indefinitely. The climate is fine and you have drinking water. You will have with you the cloths you are wearing and whatever you can buy off amazon for £100. What’s in your basket?
How much is a GPS-enabled satellite phone? (-:
I worked the Christmas Post once in the Cardiff Depot. There was an Iraqi man who told THE BEST stories to pass the time and an engineer who set challenges. The only challenge I can remember is:
You have a 8x8x8ft stone block next to an 8x8x8ft hole in the ground. How can you get it in without machines without dropping it in the hole? NB its a tight fit so ropes will stop it fitting in the hole.
I think you fill the hole with water and wait for it to freeze
You are to be abandoned on an island indefinitely. The climate is fine and you have drinking water. You will have with you the cloths you are wearing and whatever you can buy off amazon for £100. What’s in your basket?
Why can't we just go to Centre Parcs like everyone else dad?
I set one for my Y5 class based on a comment from one of them on a cold wet playground. Design a teachers playground duty sentry box thing. All round one way glass, heating, soft chair, tannoy system, coffe machine, doughnut maker, fully rotating etc.
You are to be abandoned on an island indefinitely. The climate is fine and you have drinking water. You will have with you the cloths you are wearing and whatever you can buy off amazon for £100. What’s in your basket?
Tried this last night.
15 minutes of discussing the precise details of the island's terrain, the surrounding aquatic environment - is this island on a lake or the sea? etc
ReeksyJr2 had a 'knife' and some rope, chopped the trees down, built a raft and then announced he was now stranded at sea instead of on an island. I asked why he didn't get an axe instead, but he thinks knifes are cooler???
MrsReeksy decided life on an island was pretty good, especially as the kids weren't there, she just wanted some vegetable seeds and some good tunes to listen to.