Activity: Airbags and Collisions
Posted on February 1st, 2020 by ASEE
In this lesson from Newton’s Apple, students learn about the engineering behind air bags, including the concepts of momentum and force. They then conduct a related experiment, cushioning the “crash” of a raw egg.
Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12 | Comments Off on Activity: Airbags and Collisions
Tags: Automotive engineering, Class Activities, design constraints, Egg drop, Ethics in engineering, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Safety engineering
Students in grades 9 and 10 are introduced to the biomechanical characteristics of helmets and challenged to incorporate them into helmet designs. They come to understand the role of engineering associated with safety products – in this case protecting the brain and neck of a bicyclist in the event of a crash, with the design dependent on the user’s needs and specifications.
From 360-degree cameras to “green” stadiums, the Super Bowl offers plenty of engineering to cheer about. This eGFI roster of hands-on design activities, videos, and other resources will help your students learn forces, motion, and other gridiron-related STEM concepts. 
In the movie Concussion, Will Smith plays a Pittsburgh pathologist who uncovered a link between repeated concussions and brain damage in professional football players.
It takes host cities a lot of time, money, and engineering to prepare for the Olympics, and Sochi, the Russian seaside resort that will welcome athletes and fans from around the world this February, is no exception. Along with luge runs and ice arenas, the area’s 218 Olympic projects include a new high-speed rail and seaport.
In this lesson, students in grades 6-8 learn the basic engineering issues related to helmet design, specifically the physics of collisions and the biomechanics considerations of design. Students then identify and solve design challenges, create a poster representation of their solutions, and present them to their peers. Finally, students will learn about the dangers of not wearing a helmet in certain sports.
Students in grades 6-12 are challenged to build a drinking straw tower that can withstand simulated earthquake vibrations and increasing weight and pressure. Doing so, they learn basic principles of design and earthquake engineering while practicing team skills.
Thinking like safety engineers, students in grades 11 and 12 examine the potential risks associated with magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. They gather information by brainstorming, writing in journals, and viewing a video, and then produce a final presentation that concisely summarizes MRI technology and safety precautions.
The egg drop is a fun and dramatic way to get students involved in engineering design. After a discussion of safety features, students experiment packaging an egg to produce a design that will allow it to fall from a considerable height without cracking.
