Engineering the flying broom

After hearing the story "Room on the Broom" by Julia Donaldson, students in third grade at Inter-Lakes Elementary School learned about the engineering design process through a fun Halloween-themed challenge. Working with partners, students had to recreate a broom with five seats for all the characters of story and pass a test of flying their broom for 5 feet without any character falling off the broom. One of the biggest challenges was not using tape or glue. Students planned and designed using digital tools drawing tools and then created brooms and seats with their choice of construction paper, aluminum foil, straws, pipe cleaners, string, plastic spoons and more. There were many students that went back to the drawing board to make adjustments and redesign in order to be successful. (Courtesy photo)