Lighten Your Load

Grade:

7

Teacher:

Alexandria Vaughn

1. What is your project about? My project is about backpack weight and how I can engineer a backpack that distributes the bag's weight so people experience less pain on their back and shoulders while still being able to function as a backpack. I designed three different prototypes all starting the same but adding different features to help distribute the bag's weight. 1. Why did you choose this project? I chose this project because most people don't even realize that backpacks are responsible for 30-60 percent of the pain students experience day to day. Backpacks can even cause minor scoliosis which has a significant chance of getting worse in kids and teens because they are still growing. Backpacks can cause many more problems, some of which can affect people well into their adulthood. 1. What was your result/ overall conclusion? My result was that my design where I added cushion onto the backpacks straps and the back side of the bag was most comfortable and had a light feeling on both the tester's back and shoulders. I find that my results make sense mainly for 2 reasons. For starters adding a cushion added a level of comfort that the testers felt and enjoyed while walking. Second, I asked the testers how the bag felt on their back and then separately, how it felt on their shoulders. For this design I added something for both back and shoulders while my other designs were strong in one area data shows they lacked comfort and weight distribution in others. 1. Why is your project important? My project is important because it presents a serious problem and shows that designing backpacks should be taken into better consideration. This problem has only gotten worse as I get older. At my school we don't have any lockers meaning we have to carry everything around in a backpack and as a middle school student I have lots of books and folders from all my classes, and if that wasn’t enough, based on the layout of my school a rolling backpack wasn't really an option so I really wanted to find a solution to this problem.

Project presentation

Research paper