Materials List: Creative Engineering Design:
Creative Crash Testing Design Challenge

Each team needs:

  • a few raw eggs (expect some to break during crash tests)
  • provide assorted craft supplies from which students construct their basic model car; alternatively, offer a ready-made car kit such as the wooden car kit at https://www.teachersource.com/product/wooden-car-kit/energy 
  • assorted building materials, such as cardboard, wooden craft sticks, tag board, foam sheets, felt sheets, cotton or polyester fill, chenille stems/pipe cleaners, plastic drinking straws, string/yarn, rubber bands, balloons
  • assorted tools and adhesives, such as rulers, scissors, tape, white glue, hot glue
  • wooden board for a ramp, 10 inches wide x 3 to 5 feet long, to run all model cars down for crash testing; alternatively, use sturdy cardboard
  • plastic sheeting, to tape against the wall and floor for mess protection during testing
  • washers and duct tape, to add equal weight to all cars, to improve the crash dynamics
  • smartphone or tablet, to video record the model cars in slow motion
  • stopwatches, for timing crash tests
  • (optional) Internet access for researching current car safety features
  • Creative Crash Testing Worksheet

For the entire class to share:

Student-designed examples of Creative Crash Testing models
The Creative Crash Testing activity is a new take on the classic egg drop activity.
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Copyright © 2023 Greg Nowling

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