Turkey Cooker

Challenge
For Thanksgiving this year, your family decided to go back to basics and cook the turkey over a fire. The problem is they don't have a contraption to put the turkey on over the fire! Your family wants you to build a prototype using only straws, yarn, and masking tape. Once you've built the strongest prototype, your family will know which design will work best and be able to copy it using the proper materials.

Your design does have some criteria and constraints. The contraption has to be built to place over the fire by touching the ground. The fire ring for the prototype is about the size of the bottom of a water bottle. The prototype must be wide enough to fit on the outside of the fire ring without touching it. Your design has to have a height of at least six inches. You and your group should try to design a technology following these guidelines that holds the most weight.

Materials

• 30 straws
• 2 feet masking tape
• 2 feet yarn
• scissors
• weights 

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Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time before building and warn students that the materials given are all they can have.
2. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials, size of the base, and height of prototype.  Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
3. Have a circle template for each group so groups know how big the fire ring is.
4. Allow students to choose the amount of string and tape at a limit. For example, they can have a limit of 4 feet of both materials how they would like: 1 foot yarn and 3 feet tape, etc.
5. Show students what the weights will be so they can plan accordingly.
6. Weights can be common objects: marbles, coins, blocks, books, etc.
7. Don't allow students to tape the contraption to a surface.
8. A strong base does wonders.