Hikaru’s Toy Troubles Ashley Brown and Mallory Humphries

Background Story  Hikaru and his friends decide that they want to build Maglev system to help improve sales at their family toy store.  Throughout the story, the friends learn more about this technology and work on building this project, ultimately leading to a successful track and increased sales at the toy store.

Try It Out!  We used magnets and cardboard to create a Maglev system of our own

Cardboard Trial  Our trial was successful, however we discovered that it was slightly difficult to cut the cardboard to perfectly fit our track. It might be easier using Styrofoam or poster board.

Engineering Design Process 1. Ask good questions 2. Imagine possibilities 3. Make a detailed plan 4. Create your design and see how it works 5. Improve your design to make it the best it can be 1. That might mean starting steps again, using the all the new information you’ve gathered.

Engineering is Elementary  Ask- the children needed to figure out what the problem in the store was  Imagine- the children needed to explore the technology that they had available to them  Plan- the children needed to come up with a specific plan to carry out their design  Create- the children followed their plan to create a model  Improve- the children corrected their mistakes to better their model and produce more efficient results

Put into Practice  In the “Try-It” activity, the students were allowed to attempt to make a Maglev system of their own.  In doing this, they were able to ask questions and discover the properties of magnets and how they work.  Overall, the students gained insight into how magnets can make things more efficient in the real world.

Trial Pictures