The Saturday Morning Superhero
It was 9am on Saturday morning when Riley jumped out of bed. Not only was it Saturday, but on this particular Saturday Riley was going to the park to play a game of baseball with all of the children in his neighborhood. He quickly threw on his clothes, grabbed a baseball cap and his mitt, and ran down the stairs.
When he reached the bottom of the stairs, however, he stopped and began to frown. Oh no! It s raining outside, cried Riley. Sure enough, the rain was falling hard outside of his living room window. They wouldn t be playing baseballb today. What am I supposed to do now? asked Riley, I ll have to stay inside all day.
He thought about the puzzles he had already put together and the toys he had played with last night. He didn t want to play with any of them. He didn t want to draw and he didn t want to read.
Then he remembered that he was going to have his sixth birthday party soon, and the party theme was going to be superheroes. I can make my superhero costume today! exclaimed Riley, and he ran back up to his room to look for supplies.
First, Riley had to decide what he wanted to do in his superhero costume. I want to be fast, he thought. He looked around his room and found a pair of roller blades. These will make me fast! he exclaimed and quickly put the rollerblades on.
Riley began to skate around the house. Though the rollerblades did make him fast, he couldn t stop. Crash! Riley finally stopped when he ran right into the refrigerator. Maybe I don t need to be fast, he decided, I think I would rather be able to jump really high. He returned to his room to find some springs.
Riley found two small slinkies that looked just like springs! He taped them onto the bottom of his superhero sneakers and put his sneakers on. Now I can jump to the top of buildings! said Riley.
Next, Riley decided that if he was going to be up on top of tall buildings he needed to be able to see things that are far away. He had two magnifying glasses in his room that he used to look at small bugs. Riley used tape to attach the two magnifying glasses to a red head band.
He put the head band on so that the magnifying glasses were placed in front of his eyes. Everything looks so big! Riley said as he put on the magnifying head band. Now I can see things on the ground when I m on top of buildings!
Although Riley could see many things from high places, he wondered if other superheroes would be able to see him. Maybe I should wear a bi bright costume so thatt other superheroes can find me when I jump on top of buildings. Riley searched his closet and put on the brightest red shirt and the brightest yellow pants he could find.
He looked in the mirror to check out his costume. Everyone will be able to see me in this, Riley thought, but that means bad guys will be able to see me too! He wanted his superhero friends to be able to find him, but he also wanted to be able to hide from bad guys.
I ll wear camouflage clothing and have a special signal that I can use to find my superhero friends! Riley decided. He put on a camouflage shirt and camouflage pants and then looked around for something he could use as a signal.
Riley found a bag of red balloons that he was going to use to decorate for his birthday party. When I see another superhero I will blow up a red balloon and hold it up so that my friend can find me! He stuffed the bag of balloons into his pocket and looked at his costume again.
Riley liked how his costume looked but still thought it was missing something. Though he could jump up onto buildings he really didn t have a way to climb back down. To solve his problem Riley put on two gloves and covered them with lots of little balls of tape. With my new sticky gloves I can easily climb down walls, said Riley proudly.
Riley also decided that, as a superhero, he could use his sticky gloves to help catch bad guys. I ll shoot large tape balls from my gloves that will attach to evil doers and stick them to the ground, walls, and everything else around. They ll never escape!
Riley looked at his finished superhero costume with its Riley looked at his finished superhero costume with its balloon signal, camouflage clothing and bouncy shoes and decided to call himself Bambo Boy!
He was ready for his birthday party and with one swift jump Bambo Boy bounced down the stairs to search for evil doers in the kitchen.
Simplified Engineering Design Process