🌡️ Week 3: Year-End Integration & Engineering Showcase 🔥

1. Present and defend engineering design using evidence
2. Evaluate competing designs using systematic criteria (MS-ETS1-2)
3. Demonstrate integrated understanding of year content
4. Reflect on scientific thinking development

Final Testing Protocol (10 pts)

Presentation Preparation (10 pts)

Your 4-minute presentation must include:

• Problem statement and constraints (30 sec)
• Design explanation with visual diagram (1 min)
• How each heat transfer mechanism is addressed (1 min)
• Test results with data (1 min)
• What you would improve (30 sec)

Presentation Format

• Time: 4 minutes per student
• Questions: 1-2 from peers after each presentation
• Evaluation: Teacher and peer evaluation using rubric below

Evaluation Rubric (MS-ETS1-2)

Peer Evaluation

You will evaluate 3 peer presentations. For each, identify:

• Strengths: What worked well in their design?
• Questions: What would you like to know more about?
• Suggestions: What could they improve?

Cycle 8 Content Assessment (25 pts)

CCC Synthesis (10 pts)

Apply one Crosscutting Concept to thermal energy systems. Connect to at least one other cycle from this year.

Year Reflection (5 pts)

Dr. Lonnie Johnson, inventor of the Super Soaker water gun and holder of over 120 patents, exemplifies how thermal engineering principles create both playful innovations and serious solutions. While the Super Soaker made him famous (and wealthy—it's generated over $1 billion in sales), Johnson's primary work focuses on energy conversion systems. His JTEC (Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Converter) technology aims to convert heat directly into electricity at twice the efficiency of current systems, potentially revolutionizing how we capture waste heat from power plants, vehicles, and industrial processes.

Johnson's path shows how persistence and broad engineering thinking lead to breakthroughs. After earning his master's in nuclear engineering from Tuskegee University, he worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Galileo Jupiter probe and the Cassini Saturn mission, designing thermal control systems for spacecraft—the same challenge you explored in Week 1's vacuum thermos analysis. While developing a new heat pump design at home, he noticed how powerfully pressurized water shot across the room, sparking the Super Soaker idea. He patented it in 1986, licensed it to Larami (later Hasbro), and used those royalties to fund his real passion: clean energy research.

Your Week 3 engineering showcase mirrors Johnson's design process. He prototypes relentlessly, tests rigorously, and iterates based on data—exactly what you're doing with your insulated container designs. His JTEC technology applies the same heat transfer mechanisms you studied: it uses temperature differences to drive electron flow (thermoelectric effect), potentially turning car engine waste heat or industrial exhaust into usable electricity. If successful at scale, his technology could improve power plant efficiency by 15-20%, reducing CO2 emissions by millions of tons annually. Johnson proves that thermal engineering knowledge, combined with creativity and determination, can solve problems from water fights to climate change.

During St. Louis's deadly heat waves, access to air conditioning becomes a matter of life and death—yet cooling resources are distributed inequitably. St. Louis City and County operate 130 cooling centers (libraries, community centers, senior facilities) where residents without home AC can escape extreme heat, but these centers are concentrated in affluent areas with better-funded public infrastructure. A 2023 analysis found that neighborhoods in the 95th percentile for heat vulnerability (combining heat island effect, elderly population, and poverty) have 40% fewer cooling centers per capita than low-heat-risk areas. During the June 2024 heat wave when temperatures hit 105°F, residents in North City and parts of South City faced 2-3 mile walks to reach cooling—dangerous distances in extreme heat for children, elderly, and those with health conditions.

The engineering principles from your insulated container challenge apply directly to this crisis. Community advocates propose "micro-cooling centers"—small, highly insulated structures with efficient AC units placed every half-mile in heat-vulnerable neighborhoods. Using reflective roofing (blocks radiation), thick foam insulation (stops conduction), and sealed construction (prevents convection), these facilities could maintain 72°F interiors while consuming only 2-3 kW of electricity—less than a typical home AC system. St. Louis Climate Justice Coalition estimates this would cost $25,000 per micro-center versus $500,000+ to build new full-scale facilities, allowing 10x more coverage in heat-critical areas.

Your Station 3 designs demonstrate the engineering thinking needed for equitable climate adaptation. Just as you optimized material layers to protect ice, thermal engineers must optimize building envelopes to protect people—but this requires political will to fund infrastructure in underserved communities. St. Louis's Climate Action Plan promises "equitable cooling access," but implementation lags. Community groups like Metropolitan Congregations United and the St. Louis Equal Housing and Community Reinvestment Alliance advocate for immediate deployment of portable cooling units, expansion of MetroLink and MetroBus air-conditioned shelters as de facto cooling centers, and mobile cooling centers using school buses during heat emergencies. Engineering solutions exist; justice demands we deploy them equitably, ensuring thermal safety doesn't depend on zip code or income level.

Community Thermal Engineering Challenge: The cooling center gap you learned about isn't just a policy problem—it's a physics + justice problem. St. Louis's heat-vulnerable neighborhoods lack cooling access while downtown has 130 centers. Your reflection includes an elite challenge: design a micro-cooling center using thermal engineering principles. Apply what you learned about insulation, heat transfer mechanisms, and energy efficiency to solve a real community need. This is engineering for climate justice—using your knowledge of thermal science to help people stay safe during deadly heat.

Elite Question Q10 asks you to: Specify material choices (why foam, foil, sealing matter), estimate energy loss, and explain how understanding heat transfer connects to equity. This is advanced DOK-4 synthesis—taking container-scale design and scaling it to protect human lives in St. Louis neighborhoods.