Hands-on Activity Incoming Asteroid!
What's the Problem?

Learning Objectives

After this activity, students should be able to:

• Brainstorm, voice and write down potential solutions and questions.
• Read, understand and identify a problem.
• Hypothesize, through group discussion, what information might be required to solve the problem.
• List design constraints (social, environmental, financial, etc.) that must be considered to adequately design a functional solution to the asteroid problem.
• Exhibit basic map-reading skills, such as understanding a legend/key and using a map scale to determine distances.

Educational Standards

Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards.

All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN), a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org).

In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g., by state; within source by type; e.g., science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc.

NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards - Science

International Technology and Engineering Educators Association - Technology

State Standards

Materials List

• capability to show the class an online video of an asteroid impact (see the Additional Multimedia Support section)
• (optional) classroom demo of various balls (golf, bowling) dropped from heights into tubs of various materials (flour, sand)
• 4 handouts: President's Memo, What's the Problem? Worksheet, Alabraska General Map, Alabraska Geology Map

Worksheets and Attachments

Pre-Req Knowledge

Fifth-grade reading level, familiarity with the inquiry-based learning process.

Introduction/Motivation

(Kick off the unit by showing students the great 10-minute Asteroid Impact Simulation video by Miracle Planet. The narrated simulation dramatically shows what happens when a big asteroid hits the Earth. In this case, besides a big crater, it shows and describes the resulting heat damage to the atmosphere and life on Earth [vaporization of everything] from a 300-mile-wide asteroid striking the Earth.)

Today we're starting a new adventure engineering unit and you will be in engineering teams. This is your engineering challenge: An asteroid is on course to impact the Earth and we must use the engineering design process to design the location and size of underground caverns to shelter the people from an uninhabitable Earth for one year. Let's start by watching this video.

(Next, students read the president's memo to receive their "marching orders"—students are called by the president of Alabraska to design underground caverns to save the state's population from the asteroid impact. Then they form teams, become familiar with the maps, and complete investigative worksheets.)

Procedure

Before the Activity

• Gather materials and make copies of the handouts. Alternatively, make copies of the entire student workbook, which is a PDF of all worksheets for the Asteroid Impact unit, found as an attachment to the unit document.
• Refer to basic information about asteroids (and additional web links) in the CRFAO Briefing.
• Prepare to show the online asteroid impact simulation video to the class.
• Decide if you want to conduct a simple demo by dropping golf balls into a bucket of flour or a bowling ball into a big tub of sand; prepare accordingly. 

With the Students

1. Grab students' attention by showing them the online video simulation of a big asteroid impact on the Earth.
2. (optional) Conduct a classroom demo that simulates the destruction caused by an asteroid impact.
3. Ask the students if they know what natural disasters are. (Wait for answers.) Explain that a natural disaster is a natural event that causes great damage or loss of life. Explain that an asteroid hitting the Earth falls into this category.
4. Divide the class into teams of three or four students each.
5. Encourage all students to get involved by assigning team roles, for example, a discussion leader, timekeeper for questions, and a scribe or recorder.
6. Give students a few minutes to decide on names for their engineering teams.
7. Read the President's Memo to the class. (Alternatively, have a student read it to the class, or have each student read it to themselves. If the latter, provide a copy of the memo for each student.)
8. Hand out the worksheet and two maps to each student (or the entire student workbook, if desired).
9. Give groups a defined amount of time to discuss and record answers to the worksheet questions.
10. Have students generate a list of design constraints that are given or implied in the memo, graphic organizer and maps. If students have already generated the list of constraints, have them review it and decide as a class if anything needs to be added.
11. Come together as a class and have each team share their answers. This "idea sharing" helps get the class involved. Tip: Moderate this activity by having the teams report back after each question or at the end.
12. (optional) Assign students the homework to each measure his/her bedroom dimensions, as described in the Assessment section.

Vocabulary/Definitions

natural disaster: a natural event such as a asteroid, flood, earthquake, or hurricane that causes great damage or loss of life.

Assessment

Worksheets: Have students work in their groups to complete the What's the Problem? Worksheet. As necessary, help them generate a list of design constraints, such as the number of people, asteroid size, expected length of stay in the caverns, and environmental considerations. Prompt them to find clues about constraints on their graphic organizer. Students will refer back to this list to complete the activity, so displaying a collaborative list at the front of the classroom may be helpful. Review students' worksheet answers to gauge their comprehension of the material, concepts and engineering challenge. Refer to the Asteroid Impact Student Workbook Example Answers provided in the unit document for example worksheet and homework assignment answers.

Quiz: Verbally quiz students on the content of the President's Memo to check their comprension.

(optional) Homework: Assign students to each measure the dimensions (length, width, height) of his/her bedroom. Doing this makes the next activity go more smoothly. When turned in, review the measurements to see if they seem reasonable.

Activity Extensions

Have students read the CRFAO Briefing and:

• Look up one of the provided websites and write a recap report.
• Construct a model of the solar system that includes an asteroid belt.
• Write a paragraph about the importance of studying asteroids and other natural disasters.

Additional Multimedia Support

Online videos and simulations to show the class:

• Simulated Asteroid Strike (52-second video); slo-mo footage shows small metallic ball bearing fired into sand and ice at 3 miles per second, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmKWYPWTo9o
• Asteroid Impact Simulation by Miracle Planet (10-minute video); a great visual simulation shows the resulting crater and vaporization damage life from a 300-mile-wide asteroid striking the Earth, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc4HL_-VT2Y
• Discovery Channel three-episode mini-series called "Hyperspace," hosted by Sam Neill (3 hours total); DVD for $10 at Amazon 

Copyright

Supporting Program

Acknowledgements

Adventure Engineering was supported by National Science Foundation grant nos. DUE 9950660 and GK-12 0086457. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.