Field Goal!

Challenge
Are you ready for some football? For most Americans, football is the epitome of fall. It is in full swing now and gives us great reasons to eat yummy snacks. Americans actually have a day set aside to celebrate football. November 5 is American Football Day, and it reminds us about the great sport and that the season is halfway over. So, how can football be translated into a STEM Challenge? There are actually many different possibilities for challenges that could connect to the real world that engineers work on. Creating helmets to prevent injuries, making gloves that provide the best grip, designing shoes that get the best traction on fields, and testing materials that make the ball aerodynamic to name a few. What others can you think of?
​For this STEM Challenge, you will be tasked with designing the goalposts and a “kicker”. The object of the challenge is to design a little catapult-esque contraption that flings the “football” through the goalposts. What materials would work best for this and for accuracy? What shape, size, and design should the “kicker” be to be most effective? Can you replicate something out there already designed?
Your “kicker” creation does have some criteria and constraints. Determine specific dimensions for your goalposts so all groups experience fairness with their accuracy. The “kicker” should be self-sufficient in the manner that the “football” is flung by the “kicker” with limited help from the designer. Standardize the distance the “kicker” must be from the goalposts and then see if the design will work from further out. Track the accuracy of the “kicker”: out of 10 attempts, what is the accuracy percentage? Standardize the “football” for all groups (a crumbled piece of paper, small ball, eraser, pom poms, etc)

Materials

• flexible straws
• craft sticks
• rubber bands
• tape
• football object
• plastic spoons
• cardboard
• various tapes
• paper
• small paper cups

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Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with the items to see how flexible, movable, and heavy they are. Also, let students experiment with the objects they will be using as the “football”. Let them know the dimensions of the goalposts and the distance of the challenge.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their design by drawing it out and labeling their materials being used. Include as many ways to improve their “kickers” as needed.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available and allowed to use, add any additional materials, take away certain materials, change the distance from the goalposts, change the size of the football, make the goal posts a different size. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Make sure to standardize the goalposts. You may build one example for all students to use, make a bunch for the groups, or build them together.
5. Connect to math by discussing measurement (since fields are in yards), angles, percentages with accuracy, data charts, etc.
6. Connect to science by discussing all things related to forces or discussing the properties of materials for the challenge.
7. Connect to ELA by researching the history of football, providing non-fiction books in the classroom library about football, etc.