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4-H Engineering Design Challenge
4-H youth learn critical thinking, creativity, innovation and problem solving, and have fun at the same time! Each year, teams of youth in grades 3 and up and family teams solve a different engineering themed challenge.
Working with caring adults, teams apply engineering principles to plan and build a machine that completes a task. As they do, they develop communication, problem solving and teamwork skills. In the summer of 2020, teams participate in a state online showcase and judging event where they share their machines and answer judges' questions about how it works.
Minnesota 4-H supports volunteer coaches every step of the way with curriculum, project ideas and learning activities. No expertise required.
2020 Challenge Task
A Mission to Mars!
The 2020 4-H Engineering Design Challenge 2-step task is to design and build a Rube Goldberg-type of machine that lands a spaceship on Mars and collects a sample from the surface. It will be an out of this world experience for all who participate!
Level 1 teams are for participants in grades 3-8. Level 2 teams are for participants in grades 7-12. Family teams are for any 4-H'er and a parent/guardian/related adult. Family teams are able to compete in Level 1 or 2.
- General information for all teams
- Task information for all teams
- Family team information
- Levels 1 & 2 team information
- Level 2 resources
- Curriculum/learning guide
- Showcase and judging information
Learn more!
Q: What is a step?
A: A step in the machine is a transfer of energy from one action to another action; identical transfers of energy in succession should be counted as one-step.
Example: A sequence of dominos hitting each other counts as one-step. Counting 100 dominoes as 100 steps is repetitive and not in the spirit of the Engineering Design Challenge.
Q: Can programmable logic controllers or microcontrollers be used?
A: Yes, but their use must fit within the definition of a step. Steps that use controllers should be clearly stated in the written step list and include detailed information on how the transfer of energy is accomplished. Using controllers as a fail-safe is illegal and will result in disqualification.
Example: A ball falls onto a switch connected to a controller that turns on a motor.
- NOT ALLOWED: If the ball misses the switch but the controller still starts the motor, the controller is not transferring energy from one action to another action; it is acting as a fail- safe instead of a step and is illegal.
- ALLOWED: If the ball hits the switch and the controller starts the motor.
Q: What does human intervention mean?
A: Once the first step in your machine takes place (e.g. someone pushes a ball onto a ramp), the machine should function all the way to the end without a person touching it. However, sometimes the machine may fail to reach the last steps to accomplish the task. If a machine fails before it completes the task, it may be necessary for a person to start it again from the point where it failed. That is a human intervention.
Q: Can I enter a machine that has been previously built and posted online?
A: No. All entries must be new machines created for the current challenge year and theme.
Q: Does our machine have to fill the whole 6’ x 6’ x 6’ space?
A: No, your machine can be smaller than the maximum allowed dimensions, it just can’t be larger.
Q: What sources can we use for research?
A: Information gathering is a key step in the design process. Some of the information may be what you and your teammates already knew before you started to think about your machine. In that case, your source is your other teammates or maybe the class in school where you learned the information, or maybe a parent or relative or a 4-H volunteer who taught it to you.
But you probably won’t know everything before you start. The library, your teachers, the Internet, your family and friends are all good sources for helping you figure out how to solve a problem.
Q: Can a team be made up of youth from different school grades?
A: Yes. Adult leaders should carefully consider the benefits and challenges of widely varying age/grade groups. Youth in different grades vary greatly, not only in their attention span and ability to stay on task, but also in the amount and type of planning they are capable of, the guidance and recognition they require, and the types of personal development they seek.
Q: Can youth from different counties be on the same team?
A: Yes. However, the team must be affiliated with a specific county’s 4-H program. If they exhibit their design at a county fair, it will be the fair of the county they’re affiliated with.
Q: If we have more questions, whom should we contact?
A: You can contact Amber Greeley (runk0014@umn.edu) for registration related questions and Michael Compton (mcompton@umn.edu) for all other questions.
Eight Practices of Science and Engineering from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
Learning guide
Members of the Minnesota 4-H State STEM team developed this curriculum to support coaches with practical strategies to teach the engineering design process, the eight engineering practices, and 21st Century skills through an experiential process.
Judging
Judge interview: Project engineer and challenge judge Teresa Burgess explains what she looks for when interviewing a team.
Judging guidelines
Elements and ideas you can incorporate into your own machine
Helpful videos
A Minnesota 4-H Engineering Design Challenge team in action
The Meeker County Koronis Eager Beavers demonstrate their contraption that puts toothpaste on a toothbrush, and talk about what they learned while building it.
Rube Goldberg, the father of inventions
CBS Sunday Morning video about a RGM competition in Ohio for university students.
In 2015 some of the participants in the Engineering Design Challenge took part in an online Rube Goldberg camp. In this series of short videos, Dr. Duct Tape helps campers understand a number of concepts that they can use in designing and creating a contraption, à la Rube Goldberg himself.
Keeping a journal
Keeping a journal or record of design ideas, work accomplished, work left to do, problems encountered and solutions tried, materials needed, and any number of other aspects of the experience of designing and building your contraption is strongly recommended. (It is required for teams wishing to enter their machine for judging at county or state fairs or the state showcase event.) Here are some example journal excerpts from teams that competed in the 2015 Engineering Design Challenge.
(Some parts of these examples became difficult to read/see when we photocopied them.)
The following files are for printing only:
- Full journal (Miles of Smiles team from Stearns County) (PDF)
- Full journal (Can Cak Flooses team from Washington County) (PDF)
- Journal excerpts (Mechanicals team from Ramsey County) (PDF)
- Steps list (Can Cak Flooses) (PDF)
- Steps diagram (Can Cak Flooses) (PDF)
Questions to help guide journaling
- Example journal questions (Acoma Can Crushers from McLeod County)
- Example journal questions (Workshop Wonders from Le Sueur County)
Are you curious about space exploration and the people who make it happen? 4-H hosted exclusive conversations with engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who work on the Mars Rover program. Learn more about engineering, careers in space exploration and the Mars Rovers!
On April 20, we hosted an exclusive conversation with Dr. Farah Alibay who is a flight system engineer at NASA. Learn about the education and career path of Dr. Alibay and gain some insight into the daily life at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Dr. Alibay has worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the past six years. Her primary projects have been the InSight Mars Lander and its companion mission: the Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats. She has undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
On April 28, we hosted an exclusive conversation with Hallie Abarca, an operations and software engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Learn about the education and career path of Hallie and get some insight into her work as a Mars Rover Driver and processing the images Rovers sent back to Earth.
Hallie has worked at the NASA JPL for the past eight years. She is currently working on the development and testing of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover and is the Image Processing Team Lead for the InSight Lander. She graduated from Arizona State University with a B.S. in Earth and Space Exploration.
On May 7, we hosted an exclusive conversation with Rich Rieber, the lead mobility systems engineer for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars-2020 rover.
His team works with anything that can impact the rover's ability to drive, including tires and suspension, autonomous navigation, machine vision, attitude determination and ground penetrating radar. Rich has worked at JPL nearly 13-years. He grew up in Illinois and studied at the University of Colorado in Boulder and the International Space University in Strasbourg, France.
Contacts
Registration
Amber Greeley, state 4-H programs manager, 612-624-8198, runk0014@umn.edu
All other questions
Michael Compton, STEM director, 712-330-2431, mcompton@umn.edu