Below you will find a brief description of the lessons in this unit. To read a more detailed description, please see the linked PDFs.
Lesson 1: Introducing the design cycle
Activity and Assessment /// Design a boat that can hold as many pennies as possible to discover the design process. Begin an Engineering Journal which will include vocabulary, the design process cycle drawn out, and follow the process of our boat-making creation. Students are assessed based on their brainstorm ideas and participation.
Focus /// What is the design process? What is an engineer?
Lesson 2: Why are structures built the way they are?
Activity and Assessment /// Guest teacher, Dr. Dan Levy (my dad!) comes into design a clinic based on the needs of humans. Students will draw a clinic using specific materials and label things based on their purpose. Students are assessed based on their participation, ability to work in a group, and what they produce as a team.
Focus /// How are spaces designed based on their intended purpose?
Lesson 3: Planning phase
Activity and Assessment /// Students work in groups to sketch and plan their ideas based on their observations of the materials at hand. Students are assessed based on their ability to work in a group as well as complete their group worksheets of
Focus /// Engineers Sketch and Plan their ideas
Lesson 4: Engineers are teamworkers and need to compromise sometimes
Activity and Assessment /// Students will read Rosie Revere Engineer as well as have a conversation around compromising. In groups students will also start to build! Students are assessed based on their participation in the morning’s conversations, and their applications in the afternoon. Students will also self-reflect in an exit slip based on their ability to listen, compromise, and create a boat.
Focus /// Engineers make mistakes sometimes! Start building
Lesson 5: What materials make the most sense for your structure? Keep building!
Activity and Assessment /// Students will test their designs and write about how they can be improved! They will complete a Materials Itinerary to write down their reasoning for choosing certain materials. Students are assessed based on their writing and replanning in their journals, as well as identifying what the issue or place of improvement is in their plan.
Focus /// How can our design be improved? What sort of materials make the most sense for making improvements?
Lesson 6: Assessment
Activity and Assessment /// We gather as a class to discuss what happened in this experiment and what conclusions we can draw based on our experiences. We play a Divide and Slide game to review and debrief our experiment. Students are assessed based on their participation in the activities and discussion, as well as their final self reflection in their journals.
Focus /// What did we discover about what makes a boat able to float and hold weight?