STEM Specialist Activity | STEM Career Connection: Structural Engineer
Challenge your students to plan, build, test, and refine a goal post like the ones at U.S. Bank Stadium during Minnesota Vikings football season.
Suggested Materials:
Paper
Pencil
Toilet paper tubes
Paper towel tubes
Craft sticks
Tape
Construction paper
Additional Possible Materials:
Straws
Modeling clay
Index cards
Aluminum foil
Skewers or dowels
Pipe cleaners
Cardboard
Predict:
What materials will be best to make the base of the goal post?
What materials will be best to make the “arms” of the goal post?
How will you make sure that the goal post stands on its own?
Plan:
What do you need to think about in order to engineer a goal post that stands up?
Play:
“Buffet Style” materials:
Students sketch a design and label the parts and materials they’ll need.
Students collect their materials, following their material list, and start building!
With leftover construction paper, students can fold a football (you’ll find a video tutorial in the Resources section) and test their goal post.
Limited material building challenge:
Hand out a tray of materials. Example: two toilet paper rolls, a paper towel roll, four popsicle sticks, a piece of construction paper (8x11.5), and 12 inches of tape.
Ask students to sketch a design for their goal post and start building!
With leftover construction paper, students can fold a football (you’ll find a video tutorial in the Resources section) and test their goal post.
Ponder:
What materials were easier to work with? What materials were difficult to work with? Why?
What challenges did you encounter when building your goal post? How did you overcome those challenges?
What would you change to improve your goal post? Why?
Extension:
If you try scaling up the size of the goal post, what new challenges will you face?
Time challenge: Add a time constraint to the “Limited material building challenge” above.
Explore different materials to increase the accuracy of the flicking football.
