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Atmospheric Probe Engineers

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Grades 6-860-75 minSource: Creative Dad Company

Teams build a protective shell for a fragile sensor, like an egg, and simulate a high-speed atmospheric descent to see if it survives.

Budget levels

Amazon prices checked Oct 9-10, 2026 and may change

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Quick Start

Digital downloads only.

$0 to buy. Printing noted separately.

Student time: one class period, one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one class period on a single day.

Scale back: Fit it into a shorter period, use fewer effects, or run a demo instead of a build.

Scale up: Add one extra effect, or spread the share-out across another day.

Ambiance video

Ambiance video coming soon from Creative Dad Studio

  • paperBorrow or school hasuse what you have
  • tapeBorrow or school hasuse what you have
  • cupsBorrow or school hasuse what you have
  • meter stickBorrow or school hasuse what you have
  • kitchen scaleBorrow or school hasuse what you have
  • data sheetPrintinguse what you have

Full Experience

Required materials for the class.

$21.19 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one school day.

Scale back: Fit the build into one period with fewer effects.

Scale up: Spread the work across days, or add more effects.

  • Raw eggs or ice-cream conesRequired150 plastic eggs$19.35Amazon
  • strawsRequired1100 count$1.84Amazon

Total Transformation

The bigger kit, with every optional item included.

$21.19 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day (one session, one-day event).

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one session, a one-day event.

Scale back: Shorten the event, or run a demo for a smaller audience.

Scale up: Spread the build and the event across days, or invite a bigger audience.

Choose your version

Every level teaches the same core idea — pick the one that fits your time, budget, and energy today.

Student time: 40 min, one class periodTeacher prep / build-ahead: 10 min$0 to buy. Printing noted separately.One table or a clear section of floorBeginner-friendly

Setup

Print or hand-copy the essential prompt for Atmospheric Probe Engineers, then set out only paper, pencils, and the common or recycled items needed for one test. Use a tabletop representation whenever the original version mentions a room, specialized device, or digital tool; the learning comes from the decisions and evidence, not elaborate scenery.

Activity

  1. Define the central success test in Atmospheric Probe Engineers and make a paper planning sheet for the inputs, actions, and expected result.
  2. Represent the system without electronics by using labeled cards, paper controls, tokens, a ruler, or a student acting as the device; follow the same cause-and-effect rules described in the project.
  3. Run at least three cases, including one difficult or unexpected case, and record dimensions, material choices, moving connections, and performance limits.
  4. Revise one rule, layout, mechanism, or decision after the failed case, repeat it, and explain with the recorded evidence whether the change worked.

Ambiance video

Ambiance video coming soon from Creative Dad Studio

Done when: The group has completed Atmospheric Probe Engineers when it can present the final probe design and its survived-drop-height data as a mission-readiness report and point to the observation, measurement, comparison, or trial that supports its conclusion.

Materials

raw egg, straws, cotton balls, tape, plastic bags, cardboard; Raw eggs or ice-cream cones; paper; cups; meter stick; kitchen scale; data sheet

Shown for the Quick Start version — switch tabs above to see what changes.

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change.

As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Steps

  1. Research what a real atmospheric probe experiences during descent (high speed, hard impact) and predict what the protective shell must withstand. Learn the principle that slowing the probe over a longer time or distance (padding, crumple zones, parachutes) lowers the force on the sensor.
  2. Write a design brief. Criteria: the raw egg or ice-cream-cone sensor survives a 2 m drop with no cracks in 3 of 3 trials. Constraints: total probe mass under 100 g, only paper, straws, tape (1 m maximum) and one cup, and built in 20 minutes.
  3. Build version 1 of the probe as your test model and weigh it on a kitchen scale.
  4. Test round 1: drop the probe from 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 m, 3 trials at each height. Record in a data table the damage score at each height (0 none, 1 crack, 2 broken), the highest height survived, and the mass.
  5. Use the data to choose ONE change only (more padding, a parachute, a crumple zone or a wider base). Write a prediction of how the numbers will change, rebuild, and retest at the same heights, recording the results in the same table.
  6. Repeat the one-change, predict, rebuild and retest cycle for at least two more rounds (at least three rounds of changes in all). Keep changes that improve the data and undo changes that do not.
  7. Graph highest height survived and mass for every round. Compare all versions to the brief and choose the version that best meets every criterion and constraint as your optimal design.
  8. Present the final probe and the round-by-round data table and graph as a mission-readiness report, explaining which changes improved the design and why.

Standards mapped

  • NGSS · MS-ETS1-4

    Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.