Acoustic Shields

In this design challenge, students will take on the role of environmental engineers to design an innovative bubble curtain system that reduces underwater construction noise at the Port of LU. Students will learn how sound travels through air and water, explore Avogadro’s, Boyle’s, and Charles’s gas laws, and apply these principles to develop a working model that protects marine life from harmful noise pollution.

Presented with the problem – “The Port of LU wants to invest in a bubble curtain to help reduce underwater noise while constructing a new dock. They need an engineering team that can design one quickly and cost-effectively”. Students will prototype, test, and pitch their final bubble-curtain designs to a panel. Through this challenge, they will apply chemistry and physics concepts in a real world context while demonstrating creativity, collaboration, and problem solving.

Standards Alignments + Connections

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills

CHEM.1.B:

apply scientific practices to plan and conduct descriptive, comparative, and experimental investigations and use engineering practices to design solutions to problems

CHEM.1.E:

collect quantitative data using the International System of Units (SI) and qualitative data as evidence

CHEM.1.G:

develop and use models to represent phenomena, systems, processes, or solutions to engineering problems

CHEM.10.B:

describe and calculate the relationships among volume, pressure, number of moles, and temperature for an ideal gas

PHY.1.B:

apply scientific practices to plan and conduct descriptive, comparative, and experimental investigations, and use engineering practices to design solutions to problems

PHY.1.E:

collect quantitative data using the International System of Units (SI) and qualitative data as evidence

PHY.1.G:

develop and use models to represent phenomena, systems, processes, or solutions to engineering problems

PHY.8.D:

investigate behaviors of waves, including reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference, standing wave, the Doppler effect and polarization and superposition

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Forces In Action

In this design challenge, students will act as engineers to build and test cranes that can lift and move payloads at a port. By applying Newton's Three Laws of Motion, students will explore how balance, force, and motion work together to create stable and efficient cranes.