Popsicle Plane

Hello! My name is Amanda, and I am going to be showing you how I made this popsicle plane.

Supplies

• Popsicle sticks
• Wheels
• ON/OFF Switch from old toy
• Electrical engine from old toy
• Wooden sticks
• Paper towel roll
• Electrical Tape
• Double A battery
• Two small pieces of ply wood
• Styrofoam paper
• Cardboard
• Glue
• Electrical Pliers

Step 1: Intro to Design

In order to make this popsicle plane I went through the design thinking process. The design thinking process is a process where you improve and ideate in order to create the best result. This process is about understanding your user and coming up with needs and constraints. The design that my user chose was a popsicle stick plane where the front engine moves.

Step 2: Discovery and Interpretation

Empathy is understanding others dilemmas or needs. This relates to design thinking because in order to make the best result you need to ask your user what the result needs to have. The user for this project is my brother. I asked him a series of questions to find out what the drivers and constraints are. Some of the drivers are that it needs to be compact and simple and some of the constraints are sturdy and easy to use.

Step 3: Ideation

Ideation is coming up with the most possible designs. In this step it is quantity over quality. Ideation is a really important step to the design thinking process because you brainstorm a lot of ideas then you show your user and they choose their favorite.

Step 4:

First you are going to get an empty roll of paper towels and cut it in the middle, It should be about 4 inches. Then you are going to cut that half a paper towel roll horizontally. After you are going to get your popsicle sticks and glue them to the bottom of your cut paper towel roll. Then you are going to turn it over to the inside and glue two more layers of popsicle sticks there.

Step 5:

Then you are going to connect the toy engine to the switch. You will do this by getting a Double A battery and connecting the wiring to the battery and to secure it you will get your electric tape and wrap it around. Now if you click the switch you should be able to turn it on and off. After you are going to get a piece of cardboard and tape it around the engine. This will help us keep the engine in place.

Step 6:

After you are going to one of the pieces small pieces of ply wood that should be about 8 1/2 inches long and glue on two even smaller pieces wood that should be about 1 inch long. Then you are going to get your wheels and glue them under the small pieces of wood. Then you are going to glue on this bottom part to your paper towel roll. After, you are going to get your wiring and secure it with electric tape to your paper towel roll.

Step 7:

Now we are going to make the top part of our paper towel roll. First you are going to get the other half of the paper towel roll and glue it on top. Next you are going to repeat the step from before and glue popsicle sticks on the paper towel roll that you just pasted on. Then you are going to get a piece of cardboard and cut it into a circle that fits the front of the plane, then cut a circle in the middle of the cardboard then paste popsicle sticks on it. A small part of the engine should stick out. After you are going to get styrofoam paper and cut it in the shape of a propeller. Then you are going to add the styrofoam propeller to the front of the plane.

Step 8:

Our final step is going to make the top wings. You are going to get your wood sticks and glue them onto the other piece of ply wood. After you are going to get those top wings and glue them onto the bottom piece of ply wood. Just like that you now have a popsicle plane. I hope you enjoyed! That's all folks!