Lydia Beall, Tech Studio Program Manager at the Museum of Science, Boston (www.mos.org), creates innovative and engaging exhibits that encourage children to pursue science and engineering. As the driving force behind the museum’s Design Challenges program, Beall is part engineer, part inventor, and part researcher.
Design Challenges is a program that introduces children to the engineering and design process, and encourages trial-and-error problem solving. “Remember how in school we built toothpick bridges and egg-drop landers? It’s the same concept, but we try to create challenges that are sleeker and more modern,” she says.
Beall helps students design, build, and test prototypes that solve a problem. For example, participants can create sleds out of recycled materials and send them down an 8-ft-long bobsled track, or build miniature sailboats that they race along a waterway. These activities help children learn about concepts such as friction, gravity, and air resistance.
The challenges involve many facets of engineering, and encourage youngsters to consider and harness the properties of well-known materials. In one challenge, “kids use everyday objects that they are familiar with — such as binder clips, springs, hair-ties, and...
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