Mrs. Margaret A. Migas
learning fuels passionate minds
Engineering Design in the Classroom
Engineering Design has entered into K-12 education and is making its mark by transforming the way that students interact with sciences. Engineering Teaching Kits in various scientific disciplines are popping up all over the place and replacing more traditional closed-ended lessons.
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​The engineering design process is a series of steps that engineers follow to come up with a solution to a problem. Many times the solution involves designing a product (like a machine or computer code) that meets certain criteria and/or accomplishes a certain task.
This process is different from the Steps of the Scientific Method, which you may be more familiar with. If your project involves making observations and doing experiments, you should probably follow the Scientific Method. If your project involves designing, building, and testing something, you should probably follow the Engineering Design Process. If you still are not sure which process to follow, you should read Comparing the Engineering Design Process and the Scientific Method.
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The steps of the engineering design process are to:
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1. Define the Problem
2. Do Background Research
3. Specify Requirements
4. Brainstorm Solutions
5. Choose the Best Solution
6. Do Development Work
7. Build a Prototype
8. Test and Redesign
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Engineers do not always follow the engineering design process steps in order, one after another. It is very common to design something, test it, find a problem, and then go back to an earlier step to make a modification or change to your design. This way of working is called iteration, and it is likely that your process will do the same!
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(http://www.sciencebuddies.org/engineering-design-process/engineering-design-process-steps.shtml)
Engineering Design Teaching Materials
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As a way to communicate to other teachers about the benefits and possibilities of teaching science via engineering design, I created a Teachers' Guide. This guide outlines the similarities between Engineering Design and the Scientific Method as a starting pace to engage science educators and invite them into the process of rethinking how they can use knowledge and lessons that they already have and shift them to a more engineering centric approach.
Engineering Design Teachers' Guide
Engineering Design Teachers' Guide
Engineering Design Integrated Science Instruction takes Engineering Design thinking one step further and builds into a unit the above eight steps in the Engineering Design Process. Initially, students engage in helping to define the problem, research and specify requirements, and brainstorm solutions (both individually and with their group). Students gain skills in creating solutions to open-ended, ill-defined problems, which are more similar to those they will encounter in a real job one day. Students draft up prototypes with sketches/modeling and gain skills in sharing and defending their ideas to a group. The next steps of testing and data collection teach students about how to be methodical in their collection and analytical in their interpretation of the data. Students then use their data to inform their remodeling of their prototypes and re-design. The final prototype is assessed and feedback is given. This cyclical process can continue with as many iterations as time allows for.
Engineering Design Lesson Plan - Biomimicry
Engineering Design Lesson Plan - Biome Bottles
Engineering Design are new enough buzz words in the science class that not everyone has adopted them and begun to create lesson plans infused with the iterative design process. As a cutting-edge science teaching, who wants to put the envelope forward on what is possible and engaging in my classroom, I have realized that engineering design must be built into pre-existing lessons or built from scratch. As a way to pool together helpful resources for future engineering design activities, I created a group of slides, "Engineering Design Resource Cards," that list websites and topics that would be useful to refer back to. You can download these resources below.
Engineering Design Resource Cards
