When doing engineering projects with your students, it is important to remember that engineering is a process. As the graphic below shows, this process has a key part which is prototype > test > analyze results > re-design which brings you back to a prototype. The best engineering projects give students a chance to go through this loop at least twice. That way students learn from their successes and failures and end up with a better design. It's also important to make sure that all voices are heard. This is especially true when the engineering "team" is a family with kids of multiple ages and skill levels. It's important to remind kids that in brainstorming there are no wrong answers. It's also ok for the team to develop multiple prototypes based on different ideas. As long as they are all tested, evaluated, and learned from.
As a parent, the best way to help your students is to ask questions. Ask them why they did something. What purpose does it serve given the engineering challenge. Asking questions forces them to defend what they did with a reason - sometimes they will be able to and sometimes they won't and it my cause them to rethink their design. Your job is to guide them in the process, not use your wealth of knowledge to tell them what you know will work best. Lastly, it's important to remember that engineers in the real world work with deadlines, budgets, and material limitations. It's ok to impose similar problems on students. It's easy to protect an egg dropped from the roof if you can use all the bubble wrap you can find, but harder if you're given just a roll of tape and a piece of poster board. Those limitations are often part of the challenge. Happy engineering!
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You Can Continue to Earn the Patches over the SUmmer!
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Every school day I will post a new experiment for you to try at home. Some may be familiar to you - as they are my favorites from class - but most will be experiments I found on the web that have readily available materials. Happy Sciencing! Earn a Patch
Sunol Glen Students - Complete an additional 10 experiments (20 total) from this site and I will send you this patch: Parents - just email me when students have completed a challenge, no proof required. Categories |