Students will investigate how air pressure affects everyday objects by engaging in a live can-crushing demonstration, identifying real users impacted by pressure-related damage, and conducting structured interviews to uncover authentic needs. They will document quotes and observations and translate them into empathy maps that ground the next phase’s problem definition in real evidence.

Students will synthesize their user interviews about pressure-related object damage into clear, evidence-based problem statements that guide the design of protective systems and pressure demonstrations. They will identify patterns across multiple users, draft and critique 'How Might We' statements, and produce a grounded design brief to anchor ideation in the next phase.

Students will generate a wide range of user-centered solutions for pressure-related protection systems, evaluate them against real user needs gathered in earlier phases, and create annotated concept sketches that will guide prototype development.

Students will build, test, and refine low- and medium-fidelity pressure-protection prototypes grounded in real user needs. They will document testing protocols, collect feedback from users outside their team, and revise their designs based on evidence, producing an iteration log that traces changes back to specific user insights and data.

Students will validate their refined pressure-protection systems with a new user, analyze final feedback, and present their full design journey—from user research through iteration—to an authentic audience at the Air Pressure Science Fair.