Party Pipeline Adventure
Challenge: Create a party pipeline that delivers a party snack (marble, marshmallow, ball, cheerio, anything, etc.) to the party people (or animals) who are at least 6 feet away. Use paper, toilet paper rolls, tubing, boxes or anything else to create your pipeline. The pipeline must not have more than a 10-inch change in elevation and must incorporate at least 3 changes in direction.
Recommended Materials: paper, toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, tubing, boxes, tape, marbles or anything that can roll or simulate the party snack
Share your Party Pipeline Adventure on video on Flipgrid.
See the full activity on the Girl Day at UT Austin activity page.
How does this activity connect to engineering? Engineers have to figure out how to get products and materials from one place to another. Pipelines and pipes and tubing can help move liquids and gases such as moving:
- gas into gas tanks and into cars
- cooled or heated air into rooms throughout your home or school
- milk into jugs or water into bottles for transporting to stores and restaurants
- blood into bodies during transfusions or medicine into bodies through IVs
Engineers work in teams to calculate how big or long the pipes need to be, look at the science to figure out what materials will work best, consider the safety of transporting the materials, and more.
Our 2020 high school summer campers worked on the same Party Pipeline Challenge. Check out the playlist from our Party Pipeline Challenge to see:
- Engineering a Vending Machine (moving food from inside the machine to your hands)
- World's Tallest Chocolate Fountain (moving chocolate...yum!)
- Book Vault and Robotic Crane in a Library (moving books from shelves to people)
- An Amazon Fulfillment Center (moving packages for sorting and delivery)
- and lots of videos from our campers delivering food, balls, water, information and more
Women in Engineering Program (WEP) at The University of Texas at Austin
The Women in Engineering Program (WEP) in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin recruits, retains and graduates women* to advance gender equity in engineering.
WEP is a student success program that provides a supportive structure for engineering students and creates a community of engineering peers and professionals with academic, career and leadership opportunities. WEP programs focus on STEM education, pre-college outreach and recruitment, academic enrichment and retention, community building, leadership enhancement and career development. Each year, WEP initiatives reach more than 2,000 currently enrolled students, 10,000 future students, and thousands of educators across Texas and beyond.
*There is more to WEP than the gender binary and all who are interested in supporting students in working toward an inclusive and equitable community are welcome. A climate conducive to learning and creating knowledge is the right of every person in our community.
