Quarter-Scale Cardboard Chairs

After weeks of preliminary work, Goldman asks students in MOVIE 1 to add numbers (dimensions) to their prototype chair designs, and use tagboard to build their models. Students did research on ergonomics (how devices or products best fit their users):
a. How high are most chair seats from the ground?
b. How deep and wide should the seat be?
Students did this by measuring different chairs in their homes, at stores -- any place where they found them. This is an authentic context to teach statistics as students determine the mean and median seat height.

Selecting chairdimensions for typical users prepares students when they double the size of their models to create half- and full-scale chairs.

MOVIE 2 shows students working in teams and talking about why their current designs can support the load, their concerns about the limits on materials in the challenge, and ways to make the chair's back strong. Also watch how Ed encourages teams to diversify their designs and choose designs that they will continue to develop.