Design and Build

a Better Candy Bag

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Lesson Focus
Demonstrate how product design differences can affect the success of a final product -- in
this case a bag for holding candy. Students work in pairs to evaluate, design, and build a
better candy bag.

Lesson Synopsis
The Design and Build a Better Candy Bag activity encourages students to work in pairs to
design, build, and test a candy bag. Students will predict the volume and strength of their
original design, sketch the design, create a model candy bag, and then test their bag
using weight. After testing, students redesign their bag to improve it, and then retest.
Student pairs make predictions, compare results, and discuss their findings.

Age Levels
8-18.

Objectives

 Learn how design impacts product performance.

 Design a better candy bag using science, mathematics, and engineering concepts
and applications.
 Build a better candy bag using science, mathematics and engineering design
concepts and applications.
 Use the engineering design process to solve the problem.
 Employ the use of data collection and analysis to help solve the problem.

Anticipated Learner Outcomes

As a result of this activity, students should develop an understanding of:

 engineering design process

 teamwork in the design process
 making and testing predictions
 product design challenges

Lesson Activities

Student teams will design a candy bag, and predict the volume and strength of their
design. Students then build a model of their design, redesign it, build an improved
bag, retest using weight, discuss findings, and share results.

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Resources/Materials

 Teacher Resource Documents (attached)

 Student Worksheets (attached)
 Student Resource Sheets (attached)

Alignment to Curriculum Frameworks

See attached curriculum alignment sheet.

Internet Connections

 TryEngineering (www.tryengineering.org)
 Project Lead the Way (www.pltw.org)
 ITEA Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology
(www.iteaconnect.org/TAA)
 National Science Education Standards (www.nsta.org/standards)
 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Principles and Standards for School
Mathematics (www.nctm.org/standards)

Recommended Reading

 Margaret Knight: Girl Inventor, by Marlene Targ Brill (Millbrook Press, ISBN:
0761317562)
 Packaging Prototypes: Design Fundamentals, by Edward Denison and Richard
Cawthray (Rotovision, ISBN: 2880463890)
 50 Trade Secrets of Great Design: Packaging, by Stafford Cliff (Rockport Publishers,
ISBN: 1564968723)

Optional Writing Activity

 Write an essay (or paragraph) explaining how a cardboard milk carton has been
designed to be strong enough to hold its liquid contents.

References

Pam Newberry, Project Lead the Way (www.pltw.org)

Doug Gorham, IEEE

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 Design and Build
a Better Candy Bag

For Teachers:
Alignment to Curriculum Frameworks
Note: All Lesson Plans in this series are aligned to the U.S. National Science Education Standards
(produced by the National Research Council and endorsed by the National Science Teachers
Association), and if applicable, to the International Technology Education Association's Standards
for Technological Literacy and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Principles and
Standards for School Mathematics.

‹National Science Education Standards Grades K-4 (ages 4 - 9)

CONTENT STANDARD A: Science as Inquiry
As a result of activities, all students should develop
 Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
 Understanding about scientific inquiry

CONTENT STANDARD B: Physical Science

As a result of the activities, all students should develop an understanding of
 Properties of objects and materials

‹National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8 (ages 10 - 14)

CONTENT STANDARD A: Science as Inquiry
As a result of activities, all students should develop
 Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
 Understandings about scientific inquiry

CONTENT STANDARD B: Physical Science

As a result of their activities, all students should develop an understanding of
 Properties and changes of properties in matter

‹Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (ages 6 - 18)

Data Analysis and Probability Standards
- Instructional programs from prekindergarten through grade 12 should enable all
students to:
 formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize,
and display relevant data to answer them.
 develop and evaluate inferences and predictions that are based on data.

‹Standards for Technological Literacy - All Ages

Design
 Standard 8: Students will develop an understanding of the attributes of
design.
 Standard 9: Students will develop an understanding of engineering design.
 Standard 10: Students will develop an understanding of the role of
troubleshooting, research and development, invention and innovation, and
experimentation in problem solving.

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 Design and Build
a Better Candy Bag
For Teachers:
Teacher Resources

‹ Materials

• Student Worksheet • Scissors

• Sketch paper and pencil • Crayons
• 8” x 12” pieces of thin, • Scale, such as spring scale
plastic material (we • Measuring cups
suggest cutting either a • Books, various sizes of small
plastic painters drop cloth bottles filled with water, bags
or plastic sheeting ) of candy, blocks, or other
• Masking tape objects to be used as weights
• Twine • Items to check for weight,
• Rulers such as rice or candy

‹ Time Needed
Two Class Periods

‹ Procedure

1. Divide students into pairs and provide the Student Reference

Sheet to each. (Note: This sheet can be provided as a
reading homework assignment for the prior evening.)
2. Discuss the manufacture of paper bags, and provide several
examples of bag designs to share. Ask students to compare
the bag designs and guess which might hold the most
volume and the most weight.
3. Provide each student with the Student Worksheets and
review the project with the teams. Teams will:
• design a candy bag
• create a model of their bag design
• predict the bag's volume and weight capacity
• test the bag for volume and weight capacity
• force the bag to fail with too much weight
• redesign their bag with a goal of holding more
weight
• build a model of the improved design
• test the second model
• complete the student worksheet
• present their finding to the class and
compare/contrast results

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 Design and Build
a Better Candy Bag
Student Resource:
Paper Bag History and Inventors

‹ Paper Bag History and Inventors

Over the years a variety of designs for candy bags have been
created. They are built of a variety of materials (paper, plastic,
cardboard) and are designed in a variety of shapes. A woman
inventor from York, ME, named Margaret Knight (1838-1914) is
credited with inventing a process for automatically folding and
gluing paper to form the square or rectangular bottom of a
paper bag. As a child, Margaret was often designing, or
redesigning mechanical p arts for everything fro m kites to
sleds. When she grew up, she initially worked at the Columbia
Paper Bag Company in Springfield, MA. At the time, paper
bags were folded and glued much like envelopes. After her work hours, Margaret began
to design a machine part that would automatically fold and glue the square or rectangular
bottoms needed for paper bags.

Finally, she came up with a design that she thought would work.
She had a Boston machinist create an iron model of the part so
that she could apply for a design patent. Initially, her design was
ignored as the workmen in the factory questioned what a "woman
would know about machine design." Margaret Knight did receive a
patent for her machine in 1870, but she had to go through a
lawsuit first with a man named Charles Annan who had attempted
to steal her design and patent the machine himself! Now,
Margaret Knight is often considered the mother of the grocery
bag. She eventually partnered with a Newton, MA man and started a company in
Hartford, CT in 1870 with her invention: the Eastern Paper Bag Company. Now,
Margaret's machine is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Visit
www.smithsonianlegacies.si.edu/objectdescription.cfm?ID=92 to view a photo of her
machine.

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 Design and Build
a Better Candy Bag
Student Resource:
Student Challenge

‹ Student Challenge

You and your partner are employees of the Sweet-Tooth Candy store. Recently your boss
has learned that customers would like to have a candy bag that is attractive and more
functional than the one they currently use when they shop in the store. Your boss has
asked you to design and build a new and improved candy bag that is sturdy, functional,
and attractive. She is interested in a candy bag that is able to hold maximum weight and
that is attractive, but she has not specified minimum dimensions or the amount of weight
the bag must hold.

You have learned that the design and construction method as well as materials used will
determine the strength of a bag. You will want to test the strength of your candy bag and
will redesign and retest as needed. Measurements may be taken to determine how to
improve the strength of your candy bag and to estimate the volume or weight the bag will
hold.

The Task

1. As a team, discuss and agree upon a design for your candy bag (Note: If you
decide to cut the bag, remove no more than 2” from the height of the bag)
2. Draw a sketch of your design in the attached Student Worksheet
3. Build a prototype candy bag based on your design
4. Calculate the approximate volume of the bag
5. Predict how much weight the bag might hold (Note: One 8 oz. bottle of water
weighs 9.7 ounces)
6. Test the strength of your candy bag by holding the bag by the handles and placing
weight in the bag until it breaks
7. Discuss and agree upon a redesigned candy bag
8. Draw a sketch of your new design in the attached Student Worksheet
9. Rebuild your prototype bag based on your agreed upon redesign
10. Test the strength of your improved candy bag design
11. Present your groups' findings to the class

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 Design and Build
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Student Worksheet:
Design a Better Candy Bag
‹ Candy Bag Designs
In the box below, draw the candy bag your team agreed upon for your first design.
Include how large it will be, a list of materials needed to construct it, and your estimate of
how much weight it will hold.

Materials Needed:

Estimated Volume:

Estimated Weight The Bag Can Hold:

Actual Volume:

Actual Weight The Bag Can Hold:

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 Design and Build
a Better Candy Bag
Student Worksheet:
Design a Better Candy Bag
‹ Candy Bag Designs
After you have tested your original design and added enough weight to break the bag,
redesign your bag, and draw the new design in the box below.

How did this design differ from the prior design?

New Estimated Volume:

New Estimated The Bag Can Hold:

Actual Volume:

Actual Weight The Bag Can Hold:

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 Design and Build
a Better Candy Bag
Student Worksheet:
Design a Better Candy Bag
‹ Results

Once you have built your candy bag and tested it, complete the questions below.

1. When you tested your prototype, what was the approximate volume of the bag?

2. How much weight did your bag hold?

3. Did you have to redesign your initial prototype?

If so, why? What did you discover because of your redesign?
If not, why do you believe your prototype worked so well the first time?

4. The one thing I liked about our design was…

5. The one thing I didn’t like about our design was…

6. The one thing I would change about our design based on my experience is …

7. What technology, science, and mathematics concepts did you use when you designed
the prototype?

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