Phone Lab lesson plans
Each one is a class period with everything to run it: a teacher plan, a student worksheet, an exit ticket with answers, and the standards it meets. Students need no account, and a free class saves their work.
Phone Lab: Thin Has a Price
Students start with a plain phone, 8.0 millimeters thick, that lasts about a day. They pull it down to 6.0 and the card changes: the battery holds 2,850 mAh where it held 4,500, the phone runs out by dinner, and the camera sticks out 4.0 millimeters. They open the phone into seven layers and see that the glass, the screen and the back are as thick as they were. The battery is the layer that gave way. They record four thicknesses in a table, find the pattern, and choose one.
FreePhone Lab: Musts and Wants
A hiker needs a phone. It must survive a dunk in a creek and all three drops, and it should be light and last a long day. The starting phone breaks both musts. Students add a dunk seal, find the back still cracks, and change the back until both musts say yes: the phone meets the brief with 65 out of 100. Then they raise the score one change at a time, and find that a thicker phone with a glass back would score higher and still fails, because it breaks a must.
FreePhone Lab: Test It, Fix It, Test It Again
Students put an untested phone on the bench and drop it one meter onto pavement, three ways. It survives two landings; flat on its back, the glass back cracks. They change the back to plastic, find the old result has been cleared, and test again: all three landings. Then the Pocket test shows what the fix cost, because keys scratch a plastic back. Students repeat the cycle for the Dunk and Fix it tests and record each fix and its cost.
FreePhone Lab: The Best Phone Lost
Two phones have been designed for a grandparent who wants a big screen and a long day for under $700. Design 1 has the same big screen and a far longer day, and it sells for $830, so it breaks the must. Design 2 uses a cheaper screen, sells for $690, and meets the brief with 50 out of 100. Students compare them line by line, then build a third: the thick body of Design 1, the cheap screen of Design 2, and a cheaper frame to pay for it. It meets the brief with 69 out of 100 or more.