Students participate in the engineering design process. Define a problem, Create a solution, Test the solution, Iterate.
“Aren’t we just cutting up boxes so students can build them back into boxes?” I was working with a 3rd grade teacher on a lesson for the NGSS performance expectation: 3-ESS3-1. Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard. Students were building models of weather-resistant…
(This post is Part 2 in a series. Part 1.) From making their balancing crayfish, students learned that adding weight to an object makes it more stable, particularly when the weight is distributed more towards the bottom than the top. Having learned this, they moved on to making tops. Building a Top Students began by trying…
For several weeks, our first graders have been exploring concepts like “balance” and “spinning” by building toys. Their making combined experimentation, observation, engineering design, and design thinking. And it went something like this: Building a Balancing Crayfish Calling it a “crayfish” is sorta killing me, being from Louisiana (down there, it’s a “crawfish”), but I guess out here…
Maker Faire prep is coming along. While the Creativity Lab staff is hard at work getting t-shirts ordered and schedules planned (and more—trust me, there’s quite a bit of work involved), students are working to get their projects wrapped up. I’m dedicating the next few weeks to previewing some of the projects that students will be showing…
We are all focused on getting ready for Maker Faire right now, which has kept me busy and gotten me behind on this post. Next week I’ll begin posting previews of students’ projects for Maker Faire, but, while it’s still fresh, I thought I’d share a making project that our middle school students just finished in their making elective, since…
What’s the best way to get kindergartners thinking about material engineers and what they do? One strategy that’s worked for me came in the form of a fable: The Three Little Pigs. After an introductory discussion of materials and material qualities (i.e. a spoon is made of metal; and metal is hard, shiny, and heavy),…
Primary school students in the Creativity Lab are learning what engineering bridges is all about. From kindergarten to 4th grade, kids are taking on the role of civil engineering. They’ve looked at models, they’ve compared and discussed designs, and now, they’re using different building materials to span vast distances. Grade by grade, they have been…