Emergency Signal Notification

Engineering Design Challenge

Challenge
Congratulations! You've been dispatched to Mars with a crew of
highly-talented brilliant thinkers. On a routine satellite
maintenance mission, you lose contact with two of your
engineers. How would you build a device that gets into contact
with them? You will use various tools and materials to design and
build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of
communicating over a distance.

Materials
Little Bits toilet paper rolls water
bottles
masking tape wax paper string
rubber bands tuning fork foil
construction paper straws scissors
Criteria
1. Can illuminate in order to pinpoint location.

2. Can be heard outside of a room with the door closed.

3. Easy to Operate
4. Durable and Reliable
5. Can Be Readily Available

Constraints
Students will only have 45 minutes to design.

Controls

Variables

Introduction
In an emergency, people need to know what to do immediately.
Providing timely and accurate communication is essential to warn
and direct people to take shelter, relocate, or evacuate to avoid
situations that are potentially dangerous.
All too often, emergency situations create obstacles to
communication power may be cut off, access routes may be
blocked, isolated response teams may be operating with
inaccurate information, or teams may have difficulty getting
instructions to large groups of frightened civilians. In establishing
disaster preparedness plans, emergency personnel in all settings
should have equipment on hand to guarantee that, whatever
obstacles arise, communication lines will remain available.

When disaster strikes, effective communication can make all the

difference. Any organization charged with emergency response
duties must review its disaster plans with a focus on
communication, and make sure it has the equipment on hand to
stay connected.

Vocabulary
echo: Repetition of a sound by reflection of sound waves from a
surface.

frequency: The rate of vibrations in different pitches.

pitch: The highness or lowness of a sound.

sound energy: Audible energy that is released when you talk, play
musical instruments or slam a door.

sound wave: A longitudinal pressure wave of audible or inaudible

sound.

vibration: When something moves back and forth, it is said to

vibrate. Sound is made by vibrations that are usually too fast to
see.
volume: When sound becomes louder or softer.

wave: A disturbance that travels through a medium, such as air or

water.

electricity: A source of power generated from the flow of electrical

current.

light energy: Visible light energy, such as from a light bulb,

fireflies, computer screens or stars, is one form of electromagnetic
energy.

magnify: To increase the apparent size of, especially by means of

a lens.
refract: The bending of light as it crosses the between the surface
of two transparent materials.

refraction: The ability of light to bend when it crosses a

transparent medium.

wavelength: The length between peaks or troughs of a wave. This

distance determines the color of a beam of light.

Engineering Connection
Engineers work in teams to develop solutions to problems.
Following the steps of the engineering design process, engineers
first identify and define the problem or challenge. They gather
information and conduct research to learn about the topics
related to the problem, and they brainstorm and propose multiple
possible solutions. They make calculations and evaluate various
potential solutions, selecting and acting on the one that best
meets the criteria for success.
Background
Technical rescue operations are used by professionals in extreme
emergency situations. Natural disasters, structural collapses or
serious accidents sometimes cause victims to become trapped in
confined or complex spaces. These types of emergencies require
rescue professionals to above and beyond normal means to reach
and attend to victims. In these instances, specialized tools and
skills are needed to save lives. Engineers must design rescue
equipment to meet the demands of these very difficult rescue
operations.
Engineers apply their knowledge of the properties of light and
light energy to the creation of many useful products and tools.
Civil and structural engineers study light properties to determine
the optimum type of windows to install in a building. Engineers
also use their knowledge of light energy, lenses and prisms as
they design eye glasses, binoculars, cameras, medical equipment,
satellites, optics and lasers. By understanding polarized light,
engineers have created laser applications, electron microscope
imaging and medical imaging techniques, in addition to
sunglasses and camera filters that reduce the glare from the sun.

Investigative Questions
1. List at least three different ways that data can be
transferred over distances.
2. Why do we need to transmit data over distances? Give
one example from your real life where this is important.
3. Which of different methods of data transfer listed above
do you think is the most useful? Give two reasons to back
up your argument.
Post Activity Questions
1. When you saw other team presentations, did you get any
ideas that would improve your design?
2. What was the problem you were solving?
3. What were the criteria (goals) that your prototype had to
meet?
4. How did you measure the success of your prototype?
5. How did you improve your prototype? What did you learn
that lead you to make improvements?
6. What did you think about communicating in this way?