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For the fling machine challenge we were assigned a team to design and build a device that will shoot a cotton ball as far as possible through the air. We were given 2 pipe cleaners, 2 straws, 2 coffee stir sticks, 1 piece of foil, 2 paper clips, 1 rubber band, 1 balloon, 2 cotton balls and some miscellaneous items that were up for grabs. We had 15 minutes to design a solution and document it in our engineering notebook. We had 5 minutes to build our design. We also 5 minutes to test out design. Each team recorded the distance the bottom ball traveled to the nearest quarter inch, we had ten attempts. We scored the devices based on teamwork, creativity, and performance. Our team did okay, the device traveled the average distance but the device itself wasn't very strong. I think that this project showed my group that if your design fails you have to accept that and try again. This is a step in the design process after you test your design you can go back and fix mistakes.