2.21 Develop an Understanding of Structural Design and Budgeting
This is Lesson 21 of the National FFA Mentoring Program’s “Grow Your PALS Program Guide,” in the Agricultural Mechanics and Technology unit. In this large-group, mentor-led activity, older and younger PALS work together to design and build the tallest possible freestanding structure from straws, pins, paper clips, and tape at the lowest possible cost, then reflect on how structural design and budgeting principles apply to agricultural structures.
At a glance
- Learning objectives
-
- Experiment with structural design and budgeting.
- Time required
- Instruction time for this lesson: 60 minutes.
- Materials
-
- 20 plastic drinking straws – per group
- 20 straight pins – per group
- 10 small paper clips – per group
- 1 roll of masking tape – per group
- 1 measuring tape – per group
- writing utensil – 1 per student
- paper – 1 sheet per student
- calculator – per group
- Unit
- Agricultural Mechanics and Technology
- Lesson Type
- Large Group
- Precepts
- A. Action; A2. Focus on results; A3. Plan effectively community
- Resources
- None
- Key Terms
- None
Downloads & Links
Aligned Standards
National Standards
- NM-NUM.3-5.3Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
- NSS-EC.K-4.2Effective Decision-making