(Then introduce the design challenge-a hypothetical scenario in which students are the next-generation engineers challenged to come up with the next best design for a vehicle passenger compartment and/or safety features to keep the “passenger egg” safe during a front-end collision, with minimal vehicle damage.)
(optional) Internet access for researching current car safety features. smartphone or tablet, to video record the model cars in slow motion. washers and duct tape, to add equal weight to all cars, to improve the crash dynamics. plastic sheeting, to tape against the wall and floor for mess protection during testing. wooden board for a ramp, 10-inches wide x 3-5-feet long, to run all model cars down for crash testing alternatively, use sturdy cardboard. assorted tools and adhesives, such as rulers, scissors, tape, white glue, hot glue. 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. model car base kits such as a wooden car kit for $9 at, the engineering sail car class pack (enough for 30 students) for $48 at, or individually for $2.25 at alternatively, provide assorted craft supplies from which students construct their own basic model car bases. a few raw eggs (expect some to break during crash tests). A guiding worksheet and pre/post-quiz are included. They make calculations and look for relationships between car mass, speed, momentum and the amount of crash damage. They run the prototypes down ramps into walls, collecting distance and time data, slo-mo video of their crash tests, and damage observations. 
With a raw egg as the test passenger, teams use teacher-provided building materials to add their own safety features onto either a small-size wooden car kit or their own model cars created from scratch. They are challenged to design or improve an existing passenger compartment design/feature so that it better withstands front-end collisions, protecting riders from injury and resulting in minimal vehicle structural damage. How does mass affect momentum in a head-on collision? Students explore this question and experience the open-ended engineering design process as if they are the next-generation engineers working on the next big safety feature for passenger vehicles.
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