Designing Windmills--National Engineers Week (Cost and Efficiency!)

In honor of National Engineers Week, fifth graders used the engineering design process to design the most affordable windmill that could lift the most weight.  As a part of our data unit, they were examining the relationship between cost and efficiency, quickly learning that there was no relationship between the two variables.  What's this mean?  That both cheap and expensive designs could lift both low and high numbers of washers.  

Great work engineers (and mathematicians)!

306 Windmill Designs

307 Windmill Designs