Name:

Foundations of Technology

Period:

Date:
Unit 3 Hiking Group

Appalachian Trail Activity

Scenario

Problem

Procedure
Materials

Start of
Expert
Responsibil
ities

You and five of your friends decide to hike part of the Appalachian Trail,
the whole trail is a total of 2175-mile trail running from Georgia to Maine.
Your team will be dropped off in Pennsylvania and picked up at Harpers
Ferry. The team will be starting when school ends for the year in June.
Your team will consist of an expert in each of the following subjects on the
trip: Energy & Power, Manufacturing, Construction, Information &
Communication, Agriculture & Transportation, and Medicine & First Aid.
Your team must plan a 3 week hiking trip starting June 20th, dropping off
in Pennsylvania and picking up in Harpers Ferry.
Each person is responsible for making sure that their Hiking Team is well
prepared for this trip by knowing their own subject and packing the
resources needed for this trip within their subject. Each person is
required to have a plan and a back-up plan for their responsibilities on the
trip.
Your fearless and supportive leader/teacher will be meeting you ONCE
with a ration of supplies that you come up with within the weight limits.
Sheriff Sam will be around to protect you from anything that might harm
you like bears, crazy raccoons and other travelers.
Each of you will carry a pack filled to a maximum weight limit of 40 lbs.
Every pack does NOT have to have the same materials in it.
Your WHOLE team only has $2000 to spend on the materials for the trip,
this includes EVERYTHING needed for the trip (clothes, shoes, food,
backpacks)
Follow the Engineering Design Process to prepare your pack.
Computer w/Internet Access
Energy & Power
Manufacturing
Construction
Fire, Charging
Pack, Clothes, Water
Sleeping arrangements
Equipment & Shoes
Bottles
for all members: Where
*Challenge: What can
and How (Sleeping
you use for 2 different
bag, roll?)
purposes?
Info & Communication
Agriculture
Medicine & First Aid
&Transportation
Information for the trip, Food for the trip (How
Simple First Aid Kit,
Communication on the many calories should
Plants/Animals
hike (Different paces?), you eat?), What
information that could
Communication with
Plants/Animals will you need medical
outside world, Ration
encounter? How will
attention, Normal
Resupply,
you react?
injuries (Prevention?)
Non-Verbal Day

Name:
Foundations of Technology

1.

Period:

Date:
Unit 3 Hiking Group

Define the Problem

What need or want must be met by the solution?
Our group will be going on a hiking trip we will be dropped in Pennsylvania and we will stop in Harpers
Ferry. Everyone in our group is given a subject they are given a subject that they will be experts on
they have to gather the materials for that subject they have to keep in mind not to exceed 40 lbs. for
their bags, and they have to keep in mind as a group not to exceed 2000 dollars because that is all
they are given. The goal is to gather important supplies that will help us survive in the wild.

2.

Brainstorming
List possible items that might be used in your final pack. Clearly identify and describe how each of
these ideas relates to the problem statement. Organize them within the 6 Expert Categories: Energy &
Power, Manufacturing, Construction, Information & Communication, Agriculture & Transportation, and
Medicine & First Aid.

Name:
Foundations of Technology

Period:

Date:
Unit 3 Hiking Group

Agriculture and transportation:

-Backpack that is affordable but very durable. We need a
backpack so we have a place to put all of our supplies in.
-a canteen: so you have a place where you could put
your water to keep yourself hydrated, because you dont
want to pass out.
-energy bars: they dont weigh much, and they are full of
nutrition which will help keep your body working properly.
-5 ounce packets of olive oil: You have to add extra fat
calories to meals to make up for lost calories during
hiking.
-nuts and fruits: provide a lot of nutrition to help keep
your body working properly.
Supplies:
- Backpacks
- Canteens
- Compasses
- Hiking book
- Hiking boots

3.

Research and Generating Ideas

In the space below, document your research. I would suggest researching for cost and weight of items
as well as information of the trip. If any expert has something specific to research it should be done
here as well. Be sure to include proper citations at the end of your notes.

-important: In general one person needs to consume 2000 calories for easier hiking
and 4,500+ calories for harder hiking like the ones during the winter time.
-5 ounce packets of olive oil: You have to add extra fat calories to meals to make up for
lost calories during hiking.
-nuts and fruits: provide a lot of nutrition to help keep your body working properly.
Edible plants-blackberry plants

Name:
Foundations of Technology

Period:

Date:
Unit 3 Hiking Group

-black raspberry plants

-raspberry plants
-chicory (plant): eat the leaves raw or cooked
-Dandelion: You can eat in salads, raw or cooked
-day lily: can be eaten cooked or raw
-oyster mushroom: can be stir fry, boiled, baked, and grilled.
Dangerous plants:
-bittersweet nightshade
-Fox gloves
-Yew shrubs
-poisonous sumac
-poison ivy
Edible Animals:
-White tailed deer
-eastern cottontail rabbits and elk
-squirrel
-Birds:
-Wild turkey
-pheasant
-pigeon
-fish:
-wall eye
-trout
-musky
-bass, and pan fish.

Dangerous animals:
-Timber rattle snakes
-copper head
-eastern massasauga
-opossums
-raccoons
-foxes
-skunks
-bats
-bobcat coyote
-black bear

Things we need to buy:

Weight: (one item)
Hiking Backpack
Canteen
Hiking book
Hiking boots

Amount/prices:
(7/$247.24)
(7/$41.93)
(3/$5.67)
(7/$127.40)

10 pounds
20 ounces
3 ounces
15.5 ounces

Name:
Foundations of Technology

Period:

Citations/References

4.

Identifying criteria and specifying constraints

What are the criteria and constraints of the design problem?

Criteria

Constraints

Date:
Unit 3 Hiking Group

Name:
Foundations of Technology

5.

Period:

Hiking for 3 weeks from PA to

harpers ferry

Surviving in the wild.

Having enough supplies for everyone

to be able to use.

Everyone has to have a backup plan.

Date:
Unit 3 Hiking Group

We are only allowed to carry 40 pounds

We are only allowed to use 2000 Dollars for the

entire group.

Exploring possibilities
Reflect on your brainstormed ideas and research notes and describe the plusses and minuses of each
design approach you have considered. What decisions will your group have to make? Write down the
decisions that you must make to discuss.

Brainstorming Ideas &

Decisions

Pluses
We can eat more during the day
and keep our energy up

Canteen

Hiking boots

Hiking book

Decision 1:

Decision 2:

Takes a lot of room, which we dont

have.
Takes a lot of our money, which we also
dont have much of.

A lot of food

backpack

Minuses

Its a perfect place to put our

stuff.

Have to make sure it fits us perfectly

and can hold a lot of things.

Easy for us to access water when

necessary.

Takes up space, but not too much of it.

Its heavy duty so, our socks wont

be wet,

Cost a lot of money.

Protects us from blisters and other

shoe problems.
Helps determine which wild plants
and animals are dangerous or
edible.
We definitely need a back pack.
We will spend more money on
food because without enough
food we wont have energy and
our bodies wont work properly.

Takes up space in our bags

Name:
Foundations of Technology

Period:

Date:
Unit 3 Hiking Group

6. Selecting an Approach
a. Enter the constraints and criteria of the project in the first column.
b. Score your brainstorming ideas against each constraint or criterion and indicate how well the idea
meets the criteria and constraints. 3 pts = easily meets, 2 pts = somewhat meets, 1 pt. = does not
meet
c. Total the columns and circle the highest score to indicate your best design idea.
Constraint/Crite
Food
backpack
canteen
Hiking
Hiking
rion
boots
book
3 Weeks

Weight

Money

Total

7. Developing a Design Proposal

Based on the evaluation of your ideas, develop a design proposal packing list for the highest scoring
idea. Attach your working material list in Microsoft Excel file to your Weebly. Determine the materials
you plan to use based on your design.
8. Making a model or prototype
Within the 3D Modeling Software Autodesk Inventor create the items needed for the trip to fit within
the pack that you have bought/designed. Attach your parts & finished product from Autodesk Inventor
to your Weebly.
9. Testing and Evaluating the Design, using specifications
As you create your solution, you will perform tests to make sure that the solution is meeting the needs
of the given problem. If your solution does not work, you may need to repeat the previous steps of the
Engineering Design Process, until you find a functional design. In the space below, document the type
of tests you conducted and the results.
Test Performed
Are our items within

Test Results
Yes, with our plan everybodys plan each pack will hold less than 40 lbs.

Name:
Foundations of Technology

Period:

Date:
Unit 3 Hiking Group

the weight system?

Are our items within
the money limit?

Yes, we did not exceed the amount of money given to us which was $2000

Are we going to
survive 3 weeks, with
the amount and
types of supplies we
will take?

Yes, we will survive 3 and possibly more weeks of being in the wild,

10.Refining the Design

Based on your tests, what design refinements should be made to the prototype to ensure that it can
satisfy all of the criteria and constraints of the design problem.
Refinements
After finalizing the items we are taking to the hike we all figured out that the items in our pack meet
the required weight, so weight is not an issue. However we have an issue which is the amount of
money we have to spend, but after figuring out we get some extra money because of the amount of
people in our group that really helps. And our supplies will last us the entire 3 weeks so time is also not
an issue. And finally we decided that we are using most of the money on food because we need a lot of
energy if we are going to be walking all day.

11.Creating or Making It
Modify your model/prototype to incorporate the design refinements you identified in section 10. What
additional steps would be necessary to produce the final product for the customer?
In order to solve our problem of having gone over the budget of $2,000 we needed to reassess what is
necessary to make this a successful hiking trip. We decided to start finding lower prices of some of the
items in order to have more money to spend on food which would give our group the energy we need
to hike efficiently. We also decided to get rid of some unnecessary items that we would not need to
use.

12.Communicating processes and results

a) Demonstrate your final packing list & packs to the rest of the class.