Student-made flashlight using an old baby bottle.
Out here in New Jersey, public schools were recently told to prepare for budget cuts across the state in every district. In the spirit of the sustainable design challenges and problem solving activities that we have been giving students all year, our current situation presented us a REAL problem to solve. Next year, we might have less money to buy new supplies, so it is important to conserve now. However, we want to continue giving students fresh design challenges that deal with sustainability and the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), as well as other 21st century skills such as innovation, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration.
Students were given the following Problem Statement and Design Brief:
Problem Statement: The year is 2012 and a global apocalypse has taken place. Without modern amenities such as power, clean water and local government, the survivors have formed small camps and must find ways to protect themselves and take care of basic human needs – one of which is light in the dark – which will be very handy given the many missions your clan will go to find resources under the cover of night when it is safer.
Design brief: For the next two weeks, using only what materials you can recover from the local waste facilities and abandoned houses, follow the design loop to prototype a working flashlight. It must be made completely out of recycled materials and must include super-bright LED’s (Light emitting diode) and 3 Volts of battery power and must be able to be turned on and off with a switch. To amplify your light, you should consider including some type of reflecting or refracting materials. The light source should allow for easy access to changing out the power supply, be it AA batteries or flat, 3V lithium watch batteries.
This is a shot of a simple "schematic diagram" showing the parts of an electric circuit that every student uses to make the flashlights.
Integration of math and science: Students will be given lessons and mini-activities/assignments in constructing simple series and parallel circuitry (including drawing schematic diagrams to show conductors, insulators, power, control and resistance) the properties of light, and formulas for measuring and calculating voltage, current and resistance (V=IR).
More flashlight designs:
You can see the switch made from a paperclip, the cap on the end of the flashlight is from a waterbottle (so you can easily get into where the batteries are), and the rest is made from PVC plastic and tinfoil.
A flexible light for searching hard-to-reach spaces made from the flexible arm of a desk lamp.
This recon flashlight is designed using old wetdry vacuum cleaner parts and is meant to be carried over the shoulder at night. The switch is on the side of the tube and students have also incorporated a laser sight. It is lightweight and made with a lot of foam painted black for night camouflage.
