Patrick Dempsey and Rob Rambach

School: Hixson Middle School

Type of School: Public – District

Location: Webster Groves, MO

School Population: 693

Demographic: 25% minority students

% Free/reduced lunch program: 19%

Learning Outcomes

This project integrates science, engineering design and social studies concepts and meets learning standards in language arts, physical sciences, engineering, and technology and applications of science. Students will be able to construct a working electrical circuit, explain how electrons move through their circuit, learn from failure, design and build an arcade game, explain force and motion concepts, and effectively use the engineering design process.

Download the open-source Project Plan Materials to view a complete list of standards and learning outcomes addressed in this project.

How Patrick and Rob Did It

Grade: 8^th

Timing: Eight, 50-minute class periods

Subjects: science, engineering and design, social studies

Materials: Cardboard, packing tape, Christmas lights, electrical tape, scissors

Project Steps: Rob and Patrick implement this project in four stages following an initial hour preparation. The stages include: Hook, Design, Build, and Game Day.

How You Can Do It

Grade: 6 - 12^th 

Timing: 3-6 weeks (divide the four project steps in a way that compliments your school bell schedule)

Subjects: science, engineering and design, social studies, art, business

Materials: Basic materials for this project are required such as lights, cardboard, scissors and tape. Optional materials can add more design and interactive elements to the arcade games such as paint, buzzers, electric motors, switches or buttons etc.

Project Steps: In addition to the project steps developed by Rob and Patrick, you could expand this project to include a greater emphasis on business/marketing and art. For example, your students could market their arcade, charge to play games, and allocate more time to adding art and visual design elements.