>> ♪ We've got two days to get this straight ♪ We got a challenge just won't wait our eyes are on the prize ♪ Two engineers just set the date ♪ We got this client can't be late oh, no, it's go time ♪ Build it, test, fix it debug now and kick it ♪ Got to get it off the ground yeah ♪ Stick around and you'll see what teamwork's supposed to mean ♪ It's so key Design Squad Design Squad!

♪ >> ♪ Just the other day I heard a client say... ♪ >> ♪ I got this major problem I have to solve today... ♪ >> ♪ Who's going to do it... ♪ >> ♪ I don't even know... ♪ >> ♪ Better be fast 'cause we got to go ♪ Design Squad Design Squad ♪ Design Squad.

♪ ( cheering and applause ) >> If you loved that sound, though, let me tell you, it's going to get better.

You're going to love the sound of our new client.

>> That's right.

Let's roll it.

>> Hi, Design Squads.

I'm Barry.

>> I'm Alex.

>> And I'm Terry.

By day, we're just your typical engineers.

>> And by night, we're Off White Noise.

>> ♪ We took an expedition to the middle... ( band playing rock music ) >> As you can tell, we're a pretty quirky band, and we want to make ourselves a little bit more quirky.

So this is where you come in, Design Squads.

Here's your challenge.

>> Each team is required to build two original instruments.

One must be a stringed instrument that can play an entire octave.

This is an octave.

( plucking eight notes ) >> The second instrument will have to be a percussion instrument that can produce at least two different, distinct sounds, such as a high hat or the tom.

>> We made a few instruments to give you some ideas.

This I call the strumbone.

It's basically an electric guitar that's played like a trombone, where it has this sliding roller that changes the notes.

( strummed chord progression ) >> This instrument is called the ( mumbling ).

It's a foot-operated percussion instrument that vibrates sheet metal.

( wobbly metallic vibrations ) >> One last thing-- all the instruments have to be loud enough for a rock concert, which means you may have to amplify them.

>> Out of the four instruments, the band will choose their favorite three to be played by us, Off White Noise, live in concert.

( cheering and applause ) >> As you can see, there's three members in that band, right?

And they all need instruments.

So the point score is going to be a little different this time.

You're all going to get points.

Here's how.

>> That's right.

So if Off White Noise chooses both of your team's instruments, everybody from that team gets 100 points.

>> And if you're on the team that only gets one instrument chosen, everyone's going to get 50 points.

>> That's right.

And remember, at the end of the 13 episodes, whoever has the most points wins the college scholarship from Intel Foundation.

( cheering and applause ) So this week, we shuffled up the teams.

We've got a new Blue Team.

>> We've got a new Red Team too.

You have anything you want to use in the shop to make your instruments, but we're also going to be going shopping.

>> So without further ado... ♪ It's time to start brainstorming... ♪ >> I used to play the piano.

>> I don't play music.

That's... >> You listen to it.

>> I listen to music, but I can't play it.

>> We have to do a string instrument and a percussion instrument.

>> Remind me what a scale is.

>> Do, re, mi... >> ...fa, so, la, ti, do.

Sound of Music.

>> Right, I saw that.

>> How does a percussion instrument work?

>> Well, you're banging on stuff.

>> It's vibrations.

>> Well, that's what sound is.

>> All a sound is is vibrations.

>> Joey's right.

When an object vibrates, it pushes the surrounding air molecules into one another, starting a chain reaction of collisions through the air.

These collisions travel in waves.

When they strike your eardrum, it vibrates.

This vibration is converted into electrical signals that your brain recognizes as sound.

>> Harp would be really cool.

>> But I'm not sure that the harp sound fits into rock.

>> Look, we have nothing drawn here.

Maybe we should just, like, get inspirations.

>> All right, let's rock and roll.

>> That is not an instrument.

>> The lights, the lights.

>> I think that's good.

Let's go, guys.

>> That's cool.

>> We have plenty of stuff for percussion.

We have nothing for a string right now.

The string instrument makes its noise by vibrating the strings.

And the strings make different noises by either their thickness, their length.

>> How tight they are.

>> And then the tension.

>> Why don't we put the strings around this, and you keep talking about spinning.

>> And then we could pluck something right there.

>> And then you can put your finger, and then you pluck it.

>> Yeah.

>> I like that.

That's really cool.

>> It's a totally quirky and creative idea.

Let's see if it works.

You can hear that.

Yeah.

>> If we can figure out a way to make it change pitch while it's spinning, that would be a blasty blast.

>> Pitch is whether a sound is low or high.

When an object vibrates more quickly, sound waves hit the eardrum more frequently, and the brain interprets a higher sound.

So the faster an object vibrates, the higher the pitch we hear.

>> Instead of plucking it, you could just have the bow kind of right here, and you could have this spinning, and you could have it hitting all the different strings.

>> I think that's really creative, a harp, because I don't... >> But you can't quite make a harp... >> Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Who says we can't make a harp out of this baby right here?

>> So we, like, drill holes in here, and then we drill holes in here, and then we tie the strings.

>> Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So we have our basic pipe shape.

And then we'll have one side longer than the other.

The string length will be determined by that metal bar right there.

So it ranges from short to the longest length to produce the lowest sound.

>> We have our pipe here, and we have this metal rod.

But we need to know where to drill the holes in the pipe itself, which is going to be our problem.

>> It kind of forces the air out of it.

>> Yeah, it forces the air.

( hollow banging ) If you shorten the length of the pipe, it would make it higher.

I mean, this is really long.

This is really low.

So if we can make it so it's kind of, like, an assortment of lengths, and then if we could hit it, one person on one end, we could have different notes all the way through.

>> Mike is on the right track.

When he hits the end of a pipe, a sound wave travels down the pipe.

When the wave reaches the end, some of it leaves the pipe and reaches your ear, and part of it reflects back up the pipe.

The air inside the pipe begins to vibrate and produces a tone.

It takes less time for a wave to go up and down a shorter pipe, so the vibration is faster.

And the faster the vibration, the higher the pitch.

That means shorter pipes make higher sounds.

>> We could make this thing an entire junkyard drum set.

What are we going to call it?

PVC playground.

>> I like that idea.

>> I think that we should try to move on to the percussion because we don't want to waste a lot of time.

>> Everything has been used as a drum.

>> But what hasn't been used as a drum?

>> A person.

>> That's our goal.

>> A person?

>> I'm going to go play the Joey.

>> Well, the shaker is a percussion instrument.

>> We could, like, fill tubes with, like, little beads or something, just like a bunch of these.

>> All right, we said we're doing one for wood.

>> Yeah, one for metal, and then one for plastic.

>> It's a wooden structure that has three different parts for each of the three different maracas that we're doing.

If I'm the drummer, there will be one here and there will be two here so I can easily hit any one that I want with the drumstick or shake it.

>> That actually looks awesome.

>> I want to start building.

Come on, hurry up.

Get through with the shopping list.

>> You guys can start building because you have all the materials that you need right here.

>> I know how to use the tools.

>> It's almost shopping time.

You guys ready?

>> Well, I have your money here.

So if you guys know which two people are going to go shopping... >> $150 here.

>> Thanks, Deanne.

>> Spend it wisely.

>> Rock and roll.

Things that we need are strings.

We need to be able to play an entire octave without any frets or anything like that.

>> So what you're going to have is a series of strings spaced equidistant around the periphery of this and tuned a half step apart.

>> Yeah, more or less.

>> More or less.

( Jim singing scale ) >> I can bring out a kit of single strings, and you can select according to gauges if you want.

That way, you can customize it string by string and go from treble to bass.

>> Now, that's seven-thousandths in diameter.

A typical human hair is three- thousandths in diameter.

If I had hair, I'd show you.

It goes from that thin to this thick.

>> Inside maracas they use... sometimes you have seeds.

>> We've been using, like, nuts and bolts anyways inside PVC pipes.

>> So you're building something like this.

They use plastic pellets.

>> So actually, that's given me a range.

>> But when you have a specific length that you're not changing, you very quickly run out of the variation in string gauge.

>> Changing the string gauge or thickness is one way Red Team can change pitch and create an octave.

A thinner, lighter string moves back and forth more easily, so it vibrates more quickly, making a higher sound.

They can also control pitch by changing the length or tension of a string.

But shortening or tightening a string, it will become stiffer.

A stiffer string will vibrate faster and make a higher sound.

But Red Team doesn't want to change the length of their strings.

So if they want to create an octave, they need to change both gauge and tension.

>> So you're presenting yourself with a formidable challenge to have an instrument whose strings are all equal in length, but you want to have a whole octave of pitch change.

>> Is it possible.

>> I think it's possible.

>> Rock and roll.

>> I'm actually going to make several mallets, and I'm actually going to be using the foam and carving them out.

( hollow banging ) >> I like that.

Last challenge, I had a little bit of a physics background, so I know a bit about torque and things like that-- and gear ratios.

But I have no idea when it comes to, like, reading and writing music.

I've never done it.

I've never played an instrument.

So I'm just musically challenged.

Everyone has their own small expertise, so it's like I like taking from each one of them and enriching myself.

>> That's two pieces, and then there's hinges right here and right here.

>> So this would come over and this would come over?

>> Yeah.

I think it's going to work out really well, actually.

I think it's going to look really cool too.

>> My fabulous co-host... >> Yay!

>> What's up, guys?

>> Welcome back to the lounge.

>> Excuse me.

We've been hard at work, and you guys are just sitting here?

>> Are you guys rested?

>> All right, stop slacking off.

We got materials.

We got to work on the next thing.

>> We found things.

Wow, you guys made some progress.

>> We got a lot done.

>> It looks impressive.

>> This is a pickup, and it has a guitar plug.

So this gets mounted somewhere inside of here, and it picks up all the vibrations from the strings.

>> These are fasteners for our string instrument.

All you so is you put the string in through it, and you just crank it.

>> And then we bought 11 different strings so we can pick and choose what we want.

They're all different thicknesses.

>> We bought this tuner.

It's an electronic tuner.

You just play a note, and it tells you what it is.

Coming here, we were thinking, and we changed our design a little bit from this to something that is big enough to sit on-- and two bows.

You sit on it.

You bow around the sides of it.

All right, we have a new plan, and instead of using our smaller spool as a little kind of violiny instrument, we're going to do a huge one.

Our strings will be right here.

Our guy will sit up here with his bows and play it like so.

We picked this plan because it was a little more quirky, little more outrageous, and it would just be a lot more fun.

>> It's a circle.

>> It's a circle-ish.

>> We're going to need a bigger circle.

>> Well, it's nearing the end of the day, and all we can do now is measure, and we'll cut next thing tomorrow morning.

>> All right, Design Squads, time's up.

We just want to say, you know, you did a great job, but we'll see you tomorrow, another great day in the lounge.

>> Um, so day two, we need to do pretty much our entire stringed instrument.

Our percussion's almost done.

>> Hello.

It's the PVC playground... playground... playground... playground... playground... >> Do it again.

It's saying A now.

It's solid.

( banging ) >> Guys, we realized the problem.

Hit that.

( shaking ) Okay, you can hear that, but when it's like this one, you really can't.

>> What is that?

>> The wood chips inside are not making a sound.

So... it's because they're just not creating a high enough impact to create a vibration.

>> So do you want to use another material?

>> Yeah, pick a different material, that's all.

>> We're going to break a bottle.

>> Oh, my gosh.

>> Smash.

>> Hey, Giselle, look at what I found.

Oh, that sounds wicked different.

>> Right now we're cutting the columns for the instrument which doesn't have a name yet.

We went from just having a box underneath it to making these columns... >> 23 inches.

>> ...because we needed the support to be more towards the outside, towards the strings, to keep the strings from becoming loose when the board warps.

We didn't do our original design, which was this crazy spinning wheel thing, but it's important to be flexible when you're engineering new things like this.

>> This thing is massive.

>> Do you think we made it too big, you guys?

>> That's what's cool about it.

It's not a typical string instrument.

>> I don't see why that wouldn't work.

The only thing I'm concerned about is the strength of the screws in the wood.

If they pull out, that's a bad thing.

>> Look who we brought.

Hey.

>> The lead singer of Off White Noise.

>> What's going on here?

>> We're comparing sounds.

>> We're tweaking it.

>> Yeah?

What sounds do you have now?

( banging and shaking ) >> PVC is, like, kind of like the overwhelming sound in all of them, so I don't know if there's a way of maybe making one of them metal.

I don't know if you have a metal tube lying around that you can switch out quickly.

Oh, look at this.

( metallic banging ) Wow, that's really loud.

( metallic banging ) >> You guys have a whole 'nother instrument to be working on, right?-- as well.

How's that going?

>> There's going to be strings, eight of them going like this, and there will be tuners on this side that'll be able to tune the strings to whatever key he wants.

>> So the biggest issue with this is trying to figure out how to mount these machine heads to tighten the strings.

>> All right, let's get to work.

>> Look who we brought.

>> Hey!

>> This is what we call the PVC playground.

( hollow banging ) >> It's very Blue Man Group-esque.

I mean, it wouldn't be, like, very original, but let's switch to the other instrument.

>> Whoa.

>> It's a giant kind of drummish thing, and the strings are along the sides, and the player would sit on top and bow these strings.

>> Okay.

>> I see a few issues with this.

Ooh, they might be significant.

I'm not sure.

First, if you look here, these machine heads are kind of ripping off the base.

This is not the way they're intended to be mounted on any sort of instrument.

They're supposed to be press fit.

>> A press fit is created when a larger piece is forced into a smaller whole, locking it tightly in place.

>> So you probably have to come up with another way of mounting these.

As far as, like, playability, I don't... this is huge.

That might be a little awkward.

Also, the strings are kind of far apart.

But I think it would be a lot easier to play and change notes if they're closer together.

If this was close to the board, you could change the notes also by pushing this against these support structures.

I will see you later when we test them out for real.

>> Bye.

>> See you guys.

>> So, Mike, why don't you work on detaching all these, because we're going to move them all around.

If you guys want to take all the strings off and then drill new holes... >> You have to take the criticism well.

You can't let it get you down.

And you just have to work doubly as hard and just get it finished and make sure you keep on track and make sure you're efficient.

>> So what we're going to do now is press fit it in there using the drill bit.

Done?

>> Done.

>> Rock and Roll.

>> So right now we are going to be testing our parp for the first time with the pickup.

>> I got you guys the cable.

>> Oh, cool.

Thanks.

The cable fairy came.

Okay, so now everything is set up.

So turn the amp on.

>> We have ignition.

( plucking string ) >> Yeah!

( scraping ) >> That is the sickest thing I have ever heard.

>> I cannot believe we build that.

>> Dude, I can't believe that we made it work.

Ooh!

>> Stop screaming.

>> This is something I've never done.

This is a first.

>> What?

>> I've never strung an instrument before that I've made with my own hands.

You guys want to think of a name?

>> Sure.

>> Stonehenge, anyone?

How about Strumhenge?

Bowhenge?

No, that's lame.

Stringhenge?

>> I like it, Stringhenge.

Do you like it?

>> I like Stringhenge.

( plucking string ) >> Ooh, that sounds horrendous.

Tune it up.

We need an octave.

( bowing string ) That sounds lovely.

( bowing string ) >> So you guys got it tuned?

>> Yeah.

>> Yes, sir.

>> Should we try it out?

>> Yeah, go for it.

>> Yes.

>> ♪ Up above the world so high like a diamond in the sky... ♪ >> All together now.

>> ♪ Twinkle, twinkle little star ♪ How I wonder what you are.

♪ ( cheering and applause ) >> Very nice.

The three notes at the bottom are in a lower octave though, huh?

Because... did you guys not have enough thinner strings.

>> We broke a few.

>> So this is the parp with all eight strings on it right now.

And this is the back with all the tuners.

They're all lined up, and you can tune every string individually.

( plucking strings ) >> That's crazy.

>> Time's up.

>> Ladies and gentlemen, Off White Noise.

( cheering and applause ) >> Why don't we start over here?

Blue Team.

>> Blue Team.

>> What do we have here for percussion?

>> We have the drumaca.

It's a drum set with maracas.

>> We should have the drummer in the band try it.

Alex?

>> Sure, why not?

( shaking ) >> How about you guys' string instrument?

Let's hear that.

>> Well, we took a pipe, and we like the idea of the harp, because it's very pretty, almost angelic.

>> For a rock band.

>> And we decided to combine the two and call it a parp.

And there's a Velcro... ( cheering ) >> Oh, okay.

Let's see what happens.

( plucking strings ) It sounds good, and I love the Velcro.

>> Yeah!

>> Red Team, are you guys ready for us?

>> Ready.

This is our Stringhenge.

( bowing strings ) And you can also give it one of those.

>> Well, Terry, as the master cello player, what do you think?

( bowing strings ) >> Next we have the PVC playground.

( hollow banging ) ( banging ) ( cheering and applause ) >> First of all, we'd like to say congratulations to both teams.

We're really impressed.

You guys built awesome instruments.

And they actually met all the criteria.

Both of your percussion instruments could make two distinct tones.

>> And the string instruments both played a full octave and could be amplified.

>> So without further ado, let's hear from Off White Noise and see what they chose.

Barry, which instrument did you choose?

>> I had to go with the parp.

( cheering ) It is beautiful, and it sounds great.

>> Well, next.

>> Alex.

>> I went with the PVC playground.

( cheering and applause ) >> It's definitely is fun to play and has a lot of distinct sounds and has a full range of different notes I can play.

>> Okay, that's one for the Red Team, one for the Blue Team.

Down to the wire.

Terry, what did you decide?

>> Well, I had a really difficult time, actually.

I play a stringed instrument, and so I tested this one out, but it was really difficult to tune and also kind of uncomfortable to play, so I had to go with the Blue Team's drumaca.

( cheering and applause ) >> All right.

>> Awesome.

>> So 100 points each to everybody on the Blue Team.

>> And 50 points still going to the Red Team.

You guys ready to rock out at the concert?

>> Yeah!

>> Give it up for Off White Noise.

( cheering and applause ) Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org ( Barry singing ) ( cheering and applause ) >> Thank you.

>> Kim and Joey are two for two and tied at the top of the leader board with 200 points apiece.

>> All right, Deanne, here's a new challenge: describe the Design Squad Web site in ten seconds-- go.

>> There are games, photos, new challenges, videos, quizzes, scoring updates.

>> Time's up.

>> Ugh!

Just go to pbskidsgo.org.