The DataSnap Impact STEM Lab brings force, motion, and engineering concepts to life through a clean, repeatable, and highly engaging hands‑on experience. Designed to modernize the classic egg‑drop challenge, this innovative lab allows students to experiment with impact forces, rapid prototyping, and design thinking—without the messy cleanup. Using included motion sensors, learners can collect velocity and acceleration data, analyze their results, and iterate like real engineers, making STEM learning both meaningful and fun.
Meaningful Data
This Impact STEM Lab includes two Motion Sensors that sit inside the Exosuits as they fall during each test. The sensors monitor a variety of data, including velocity, acceleration, and force. Using the free DataSnap app, students can see the data from their drop. Then, they can adjust their Impact Ship based on their findings. This post‑drop data review helps students connect their design choices to real engineering outcomes. Each drop becomes an opportunity for evidence‑based improvement, reinforcing data literacy and deepening STEM understanding.
30 Impact Ships and Exosuits
The Impact STEM Lab comes with 30 Exosuits and Impact Ships, allowing 30 individual students or small groups to engage in the activity simultaneously. This classroom‑wide capacity makes it easy for teachers to run the full activity in a single class period, ensuring every student gets hands‑on time with engineering concepts. The two sensors sit in the Exosuits, which nest in the Impact Ships. Students can customize their Impact Ships with cotton balls, pipe cleaners, string, and any other materials available to reduce the impact on the sensor when it drops.
Engineering Challenges
The Impact STEM Lab experience is built around the engineering design cycle. Students customize their ship and drop it, then use the DataSnap app to analyze their results after the drop. They can evaluate factors like speed, acceleration, and force, then make thoughtful adjustments to improve outcomes. This cycle of building, testing, analyzing, and refining helps students think and solve problems like real engineers. As students iterate on their builds, they naturally develop resilience and problem‑solving skills.
Skill Development
This Impact STEM Lab is designed to help students develop foundational engineering and physics skills through engaging, hands‑on activities. Using the lab’s components and data from the motion sensors, learners explore:
- Distance, time, and velocity
- Gravitational acceleration
- Force, Newton’s laws, and inertia
- Parachute dynamics
- Speed
Standards-Aligned Learning
The DataSnap Impact Lab is built to fit seamlessly into existing STEM and CTE programs thanks to its alignment with NGSS, ISTE, and ITEEA standards. This ensures every lesson reinforces essential engineering and scientific practices, from analyzing impact to engaging in iterative design. The curricula provide structured, standards‑aligned activities that help teachers meet learning goals without additional prep time.
Ready-to-Use Curricula and Slides
This DataSnap Impact Lab comes with two curricula, one that is more conceptual and another that dives into advanced math. It comes with slide presentations created with the intention that students go through them in small groups as they engage in this unique learning experience. Additionally, the lab comes with digital Student Engineering Workbooks that align with the slide presentations. Each curriculum takes 6-12 hours to teach.
Additional Resources
- Interested in more data-driven STEM labs? Check out this blog on our DataSnap Air Racer STEM Lab
- Explore all our STEM training tools
- Download our free STEM career exploration curriculum
