Have a
question or comment?
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Essential question:
How can we have fun and learn about many
subjects? |
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Stories can be found in Fictional
Literature as well as Social Studies and History. |
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An example
in a fairy tale:
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The core idea of
the approach is that engineering need not “stand alone” in
the curriculum, but can and should leverage other curricular
elements, in particular literature and social
studies/history stories. |
Outcome of this section:
Looking to find a
Design Challenge that one of the characters have that we
can design a product or process to help them. |
Getting Started:
fullsize
"Engineering
design challenges" are created by actionable items in the
story and lead to inquiry based team projects that have a
design theme. As an example, in the story "Island of the
Blue Dolphins", the village leaves canoes on the side of a
hill for escaping a potential attack. The heroine in the
story has a difficult time getting one of them down the hill
and into the water. A "design challenge" for the students
could be to design a system to make it easier for her to
lower the canoe. |
We begin to
enhance the learning process by using the engineering design
methodology as a connector between literature, science &
mathematics. Within this process is an infusion of thinking
skill strategies, such as creative and critical thinking,
questions and meta-cognitive reflection. The concept uses
the existing comfort level of the elementary teachers and
the student’s natural engineering abilities.
The process begins with literature, such as fairy tales,
starting in the lower grades and leading to more
sophisticated stories at older ages – stories that engage
students. The underlining skills of the engineering design
process are related to the science process, mathematical
problem solving (process) and thinking skills. Thus the
student is taught how to think skillfully.
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Pre-existing
skills needed by the students:
Understand the design process and what engineers do.
· What science
are we going to learn or have we just finished.
· How to work as
a team (peer interaction).
· Students
tutoring other students.
Are we solving the right problem?
“if I were given one hour to save the planet, I
would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one
minute resolving it” Albert Einstein
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Starts
with viewing through the “Engineering Lens”
The students and teachers
should focus on thinking like an engineer when reading the
literature. Questions of the story line, author and
characters around the design of a product or process for
society should be the instrument to begin. We should invite
them to ask creative questions, make diverse observations,
explore multiple viewpoints, reflect on their thinking
process and seek personal connections of the literature.
Examples: Why is this a special moment for the
character in the story? How can we as engineers, created
something for the characters in the story that will make
their actions better?
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Define an approach for what
you want the leaning outcome to be.
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Do
we want to emphasize the learning of the
engineering design process?
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Do
we want to focus on a science strand within a
design process?
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Do
we want to focus on teaching a thinking skill?
Ie creative process |
Pick a science
strand to connect with, either one that you just
studied (used for reinforcement) or one that you
are going to study ( great Segue). |
With an
engineer’s perspective, use the normal teacher’s
skills to engage students in the story. …
Look at "story map" for ideas, think of
engineering key words ( create, improve,
identify, investigate, etc. ). Think of the
science you just studied. |
Develop design
challenges with the students. Have a few in
mind to channel the students towards these. |
Integrate the
engineering design and the science. If you
picked the science you just studied, you can ask
the students to sort their design challenges
around that science. If you are going to focus
on the up-coming science lesson, guide your
students to view the design challenges around
that science. This will give you the teacher,
a good segue into the new science lesson.
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Use the 8 step
design process or modified PreK-2 grade
version. Remember that the design process is
cyclical in nature and having additional
knowledge allows you to make better decisions.
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Approach:
A teacher normal engages the
students with the literature they are reading by asking
skillful questions and using meta-cognitive reflection to
bring out interesting areas of the story line. What we are
adding is an engineering lens on the process to focus those
questions from an engineering designer’s viewpoint.
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Lesson
design: team-teaching and teachers focusing on their own
intelligence strength; using all or several of the
intelligence in lessons; asking students their opinions on
how best to learn.
Our current education places no importance
on even knowing the individual passions, or interests, of
our students, and most teachers don't ask – not necessarily
because they don’t care, but because they are so occupied
with all the other required tasks (such as teaching for the
tests) that they feel they have no time. But if we lack the
time to find out who our students really are and what they
like, it is hard to create an education that interests them. |
Differentiated Learning
What’s their learning style, Do they bring
pre-conceived thoughts to the classroom?
Everything we teach should also
be matched with a clear answer to the student’s
constant question of “Why am I learning this?”
Students should be taught to immediately use what
they learn to effect outcomes in the world, and
change it for the better. For example, they can use
their learning to design a school of the future, or
to redesign their current school.
They can use the languages they
learn to work directly with foreign students. They
can learn to perform professional energy and
environmental audits of local businesses. They can
use their knowledge and skills to create Public
Service Announcements for local TV and radio
stations. |
Look for conflicts, changes in the story line and places
where a new item could help one of the characters.
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How
can someone’s quality of life be improved?, How can
we make a certain task easier?, How can we improve
upon an existing product?
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Focus
on key words that relate to science and engineering
such as, habitat, weather, materials & tools,
devices to help society, survival, plant material,
and the environment.
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Challenge the author’s assumptions in the story line
by looking with the engineering view.
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Have
students brainstorm and decide on challenge they
will work on.
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If
the author was an engineer, what would be added to
the story?
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Teacher Strategies
Engage the
students in the story by using questions that the students
identify with some design challenges.
As the facilitator, the
requirements
can be added to for steering the direction of what the
design challenge solution has to do.
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Show the similarities of the design process and reading and
writing. |
Literacy Extensions: |
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Social Studies/ History
In our historical past their have been many problems
individuals and society faced. Using the design process,
students will design an artifact or process to help solve
the issue.
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We start off with the grade level and
pick a story around the theme of that school year. In
grade 5, we might be studying about Jamestown or
Plymouth.
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What design challenges can we work on
that would engage our students and bring in solving a
problem that people had in that period of History.
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As an example, we can work on a better
water treatment system; transportation system, fire
system, making homes better insulated and weather
forecasting.
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Attitude:
An
open mind is playful and willing to be silly because the
best ideas are often hidden within our minds away from our
watchful judgmental selves. The free flow
of conflicting ideas is essential for creative thinking.
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Look for
changes in the story where the character is put into a
different position, something changes or a statement is made
that you can see opportunities to develop a product or
provide a solution.
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Starting with questions
If the design
challenges don’t jump out to
you or your class, a good way to
start is by using the 5 W’s (Who, When, Where, What, Why)
plus How in question format to begin. As an example you can
ask
yourself the following questions:
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What
activity or item that focuses around science (habitant,
weather, energy, materials) can we design a device to
change or enhance the story?
Students need questions to turn on their
intellectual engines and they need to generate questions
from our questions to get their thinking to go somewhere.
Thinking is of no use unless it goes somewhere, and again,
the questions we ask determine where our thinking goes.
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What makes a
good design challenge?
Fun Solves a real problem Tied to science and math Can be done with paper or using simple materials Can create many
learning extensions from it Can add your requirements to change the location or theme to
suit your learning needs |
Remember:
We are looking for many design challenges in a story and
then we can pick the one that best suits our requirements! |
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