ACCIDENT CHALLENGE

Learning Set 1

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOK

1.1 Organize the Challenge

Accidents in McFarland 1.1 Organize the Challenge

Watch Video 1

The people of the town of McFarland have an accident problem at the corner of Main Street and Park Street. During the past year, this heavily used intersection near downtown has been the site of several dangerous accidents involving large tractor-trailer trucks hitting smaller cars. Many of the accidents resulted in severe injuries and cars that had to be scrapped and totaled. That is, the cars were not able to be fixed and used again. There have even been some fatalities as a result of these car accidents. Your challenge is to assist the town of McFarland to understand why the accidents are causing more damage and injury. You will determine the factors that lead to such accidents and explore possible solutions to the challenge.

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOK

1.1 Organize the Challenge

To understand more about the dangerous intersection, review maps of the area (full-size maps available in your student packet): Map 1: Birds-eye view of the entire McFarland area, with the intersection circled Map 2: Close-up view of the intersection of Park and Main. Map 3: Final location of cars struck by the trucks during accidents in the previous year Map 4: Final location of cars struck by the trucks during accidents this year Map 1 McFarland Area Map 2 Intersection Close-Up

Map 3 Previous Years Accident Data

Map 4 - This Years Accident Data

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOK

1.1 Organize the Challenge

Engineers are professionals who help attempt to solve challenges like McFarlands. An engineer is known as a person who, given a problem and a specific set of goals, finds a solution to the problem that satisfies those goals with the given materials, time, and resources. They apply their scientific and mathematical knowledge to develop a solution to a problem or challenge. Engineers may design new materials or structures, or they may develop new products and processes. Traffic Engineers examine traffic safety by investigating locations that have high accident rates and work on developing methods to reduce the number of car crashes at these locations. In order to help the town of McFarland, you will address the challenge as a traffic engineer would.

Watch Video 2

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOK

1.1 Organize the Challenge

1.1: Part 1 of 3: Organize the Challenge
What do we think we know? One of the first steps that engineers take as they solve problems is to determine what they already know about the problem. Discuss with your group or fellow students what you think you already know about the problem. How might this information help you determine what you need to learn in order to solve the problem? Think about what you already know about car accidents
GROUP

from prior knowledge or experience. Write this

information on your Challenge Organizer under What do we think we know about accidents?

Recording information and observations is a very important skill for scientists and engineers as they tackle challenges. The Challenge Organizer is a tool your class will use to record information as you move through this challenge. You will use your Challenge Organizer throughout your investigation to keep track of your learning. After determining what you know about car accidents, you might determine that there is a lot of information that you are unsure about and a lot of questions that you have about the problem. This leads into another important step that engineers take when investigating a problem: conducting research.

What do we want to know? Upon looking at the maps comparing accidents from last year and this year, you might have noticed that there were many more severe accidents at the intersection. This observation may lead to the question about how things might have changed in the last year. For example,

Were there more cars traveling through the intersection this year?

One important part of the research process is asking questions. These questions help you create a better understanding of the problem. Scientists and engineers examine a problem
DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOK

1.1 Organize the Challenge

carefully, make observations, and develop questions based on their observations. Think about the other observations you made from the maps and the crash videos. What questions might you create or ask from these observations? What else do you notice when examining the maps and reviewing prior information? How are you able to ask questions from these observations?

Your Challenge Organizer provides some sample observations and questions that could be asked based on those observations. Like a scientist or engineer, see if you can develop questions from the observations listed in your Challenge Organizer and others you have noticed.

STUDENT

Write questions based on the Observations #3 and #4 provided on your Challenge Organizer.

In order to assist in your research, the town of McFarland has offered to arrange to provide you with presentations about the accident problem from with both the Mayor and the Police Chief. During these presentations, you may learn some of the answers to your questions, but you may also make additional observations will lead to more questions. The Mayor and Police Chief will refer to the Accident Data Chart (below), Map 3, and Map 4 during their presentations.

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOK

1.1 Organize the Challenge

Accident Data Chart

Total Accidents Previous Year Current Year 7 18

Vehicle Damage Minor Severe 5 4 2 14

Effect on Passengers Minor Severe Fatal 6 5 1 11 0 2

Record information and observations from the mayor on your

STUDENT

Challenge Organizer in the Facts/Observations from information provided box.

Watch Video 3 RRecord information and observations from the police chiefs
STUDENT

ppresentation on your Challenge Organizer in the Facts/Observations f from information provided box.

Watch Video 4

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOK

1.1 Organize the Challenge

1.1: Part 2 of 3 Share
Both the mayor and police chief provided you with information about the history of the intersection, organization of the road system, and statistics about the accidents at the intersection. The mayor and police chief also explained some obstacles that the town has in solving this problem. These obstacles may be limits in time, materials, people, or property. Engineers refer to these as constraints. Identifying constraints is an important part of the engineering design process as it allows you understand the limits when developing a solution.

As with any problem in real-life, a solution is not always easy to obtain. Review the information you learned from the interviews and ask yourself What are some of the limits I cannot change while I solve this challenge? What are some time, material, or environmental restrictions?

STUDENT

Identify two constraints in solving this challenge and record them on your Challenge Organizer.

Now that you have gathered more information and identified constraints, you will share this information with your classmates. Sharing information and working together on a potential solution to a challenge is known as collaboration. It is another important step in the engineering process in creating new and innovative solutions.

You will collaborate with classmates through a Carousel Activity. Your teacher will divide you into groups to participate in the Carousel Activity. Each group will visit the Carousel posters, read the prompt, and record the ideas or answers they have for the prompt on the poster. Each group should contribute one or two ideas for each prompt. Afterward, your group will rotate to the next poster after a few minutes.

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOK

1.1 Organize the Challenge

Sharing: Carousel Activity
Rotate around the classroom in small groups, stopping at various poster stations for a designated amount of time. At each poster, there will be a prompt in the form of a question or statement.. Discuss these questions/statements with your peers and develop a response to the prompts. Write this response on the poster at each station for all groups to review.

Collaborate with your group to write relevant information

GROUP

from Facts/Observations section of your Challenge Organizer on the Carousel posters.

1.1: Part 3 of 3 Share

We are able to use the information recorded on the carousel posters see the challenge from many different viewpoints. It also provided some of the necessary information needed to address the challenge. As a class, we will review these posters and record some new information in our Challenge Organizer to guide us through the challenge. Review the Carousel Posters to identify new observations and information recorded during the Carousel. Record the seemingly important ones on the Challenge Organizer. Then, as a class draft new questions from those observations, as you did earlier. Each student should record the observations and the questions in their own Challenge Organizer as the teacher records them on the class version.

Review Carousel Posters to identify new observations and

CLASS

information recorded during the Carousel. Record the important ones on the Challenge Organizer.

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOK

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOK