On July 25th, we partnered with the WBRL again to host the READesign Challenge in Fort McKay! We had a total of 16 students, 6 boys and 10 girls, participate in the session. They worked in teams to read a book and solve the problem using engineering design. They had to choose their materials from the ‘store’ and keep within a specified budget as they designed their engineering solutions.

TEAM: Dog Breath

One group chose the book Dog Breath, the story of a dog that had really bad breath and cause troubles for her family. This team thought of a few ideas like mouthwash and toothpaste, but when they reviewed the materials at the store, they decided to make an electric toothbrush to clean Hally Tosis’ mouth.

Criteria: Spinning bristles, handle to hold the toothbrush

Materials: Motor, batteries, pipe cleaners, cardboard/balsa wood

TEAM: Iggy Peck, Architect

Another group chose the book Iggy Peck, Architect, the story of a boy who loves to build. He saves the day when his class gets stuck on a island and in the book, Iggy builds an amazing bridge for his class to cross. How else could we solve this problem with engineering? This team decided to build a boat!

Criteria: Must float with a certain weight, must be waterproof

Materials: Cardboard, toilet paper rolls, wooden dowels, paper, foil

TEAM: Beaver the Carpenter

This group read the story of Beaver, the Carpenter, a beaver who loves to build, but need a place to store all of his building tools. In the story, the beaver builds his own toolbox. The kid in this group decided to build a toolbox as well but with a modification, a rolling toolbox!

Criteria: Must hold the weight of tools, must be easy to move around

Materials: Cardboard, wheels, dowels, glue gun

TEAM: We found a hat

This final group read the book We Found a Hat, the story of a pair of turtles who found a hat. Both turtles wanted the hat but because there was only one, they decided neither would have the hat. This group decided to solves these turtles’ problem by building a sewing machine to sew a new hat.

Criteria: Sturdy, Ability to spool the thread

Materials: Cardboard, Pulley and thread, Magnets

The students all made creative solutions to the storybook problems and learned that they could be engineers!

Join us next time for the READesign Challenge!