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Notes for Teachers

This is the third lesson in a series of lessons designed to introduce engineering practices to middle school students.
Timing - 2 to 3 periods
Students will work individually, with elbow partners and participate in group discussions.
In this lesson students will be introduced to the use of criteria and constraints; they will also be introduced to over engineering.
Terminology is introduced but this is not a vocabulary lesson.

List of Materials

Engineering Notebook (or a composition notebook)
YouTube Video: Apollo 13: Square peg, Round hole
Students prototypes from Lesson 2
Coffee cups with lids, cardboard tubes, straws, dowels, popsicle sticks, rubber bands, pony beads, masking tape, plastic spoons
Scissors, paper clips (use to pull rubber bands through holes), awl, pencils

Optional resources:

Racing Coffee Cups – for teachers use only

Lessons:

Lesson #1: Is It Engineered?.pptx - Google Slides

Lesson #2: Engineering Design Process.pptx - Google Slides

Lesson 4

These lessons were used during a summer program. There were 75 students, from 5^th to 7^th grade. Students were split up into classes of 15 students. Periods were 40 minutes, which was not optimum, it would have been better to have larger class sizes and lengthen the periods to 1 hour.

Materials are all easily obtained. I sent home on the first day of the program a list of materials that could be donated. I have used print articles in the past, but due to time constraints and the high number of ELD students I chose to used videos instead of articles.

Student’s prototypes (these were made during lesson 2) - Coffee cup racer. Directions for making a coffee cup racer can be found here: Racing Coffee Cups (I don’t share these directions with the students since they will be working on developing reverse engineering skills to make their racer.)

List of materials:

Cardboard tubes – toilet or paper towel

Styrofoam cups w/ lids (I bought these at Costco)

Straws – regular and/or Boba

Popsicle sticks

dowels

Rubber bands – various sizes

Pony beads

Masking tape

Plastic spoons

Scissors

Awl (teacher only)

Paper clips

pencils

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Arizona State Science Standards

U2: The knowledge produced by science is used in engineering and technologies to solve problems and/or create products

ELA State Standards

6.SL.1 - Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

6.RI.7 - Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

Arizona State CTE Standards

2.0 - Create engineering solutions by applying a structured problem-solving / decision-making process

2.1 - Identify the problem
2.5 - develop a prototype
2.7 - Evaluate the solution, and revise or repeat if necessary

NGSS

MS-ETS1-1 - Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.

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Objective(s):

Today I will be able to explain what criteria and constraints are when applied to engineering.

Today I will be able to use the engineering design process to modify my original prototype.

Today I will be able to develop a test and collect data to use to determine if how my modifications affected the outcome of my prototype.

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Pacing (3-4 periods)

Discussion: Why do we make modifications - watch the short segment in Apollo 13 were the scientist had to make a modification of the CO₂ scrubber to save the astronauts. (10 min)

Activity: Making modifications – The Ancient Artifact (2 to 3 hours)

Closing: Best Prototype Showcase (15 min)

Teacher Tips:

Engineering Notebook - can be printed in booklet form or printed has separate pages that can be taped into a composition notebook. (These note pages will be used for all 4 lessons.)
During this lesson the students will go through the design process twice.

The first time they will be simplifying the original design by identifying which parts can be removed and which parts are required for their prototype to work the same as the original ancient artifact.
The second time they will be repurposing their design so that it can do something the original was not designed to do. Two possibilities that were presented to my students were to either design it so that it would work in water or to design it so it could go up a ramp. You can either have each group chose the modification they want to do, or you can have the whole class do the same modification.

Closing can either be a showcase where students explain what modifications they did and why or it can be a competition to see who’s prototype travels the furthest.

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Why Modify a Design

Video: Apollo 13: Square peg, Round hole

Discussion Questions:

Why did the engineers have to modify the design in the movie clip?

What do you think it means when something is over engineered?

Watch the video clip from the movie “Apollo 13”, : Apollo 13: Square peg, Round hole, and discuss why they needed to modify their design. Have students brainstorm designs that they think have been modified. Talk about repurposing materials or designs as a part of modification.
Explain that sometimes an item might be over engineered – Discuss that something that is over engineered can do more than what it was intended to do or has more materials used in its design than needed. Example: cell phone – problem that it is intended to solve; communication without wires – but it does more than just make calls, have student list what else a cell phone can do.
Talk about how modifying a design might change how or if the original problem is solved.
The main take away for the students is that there are many ways to modify a design and that each modification must meet the criteria for the identified solution.

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Students will work in pairs.

First Modification:

Step 1 – Students will list the parts of their prototype and identify which parts may be redundant or unnecessary.
Step 2 – They will draw a diagram that shows which parts will be removed.
Step 3 – Next they will chose which parts they will remove and build a new prototype.
Step 4 – they will test their prototype and determine if it met the criteria of simplifying their original prototype without negatively impacting the way it operated.

Second Modification:

Step 1 – Students will identify which modification problem they will be solving.
Step 2 – They will brainstorm ways in which they will could modify their prototype to meet the new criteria.
Step 3 – Students will choose the solution that they feel will best meet the criteria and build a prototype.
Step 4 – Students will test their prototype.
Step 5 – they will have another team look at and critique their design.
Step 6 – based on the Peer Engineer Critique they will design and build a second prototype and test it.

The objective of this activity is to have students modify their original prototype based on a set of criteria and constraints. They will be given to sets of criteria:

Simplify the original design
Repurpose the original design so that it can either move in water or go up an incline

Ideas to review/teaching tips -

Remind students that they must make a drawing and it needs to be detailed and have multiple views. Labels are required - being an artist is not.
Explain that they need to revise their drawings if they make changes to their design while they are building it.
Don’t hand out materials to students until they show you their drawing and have everything labeled. You can use a budget to reduce waste and add to the mathematical value of the lesson.

Example: each team is given a budget of $600 when they come to get their materials you give them an invoice (I either make one or I buy a pad of invoices from Office Max). An example invoice can be seen on the extensions slide.

Students will be critiquing each others work, go over how to talk to someone about possible improvements. Remind students that these critiques should not be personal – they are to be focused on the prototypes. Also remind students that they do not have to make all the changes that are suggested.
Set up an area where students can test their prototypes –

You can have student test the distance the object travels with different numbers of winds (review using a meterstick)
You can lay out a specific distance and have student time how long it takes to travel that distance (review that they need to use the same number of winds)

Explain to students how to use their data to determine if their prototype worked the same way the original worked.

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Assessment

All drawings/diagrams are labeled – materials and function
Drawings/diagrams include multiple views
Prototype is built to meet the criteria and constraints that are listed
Prototype is tested and data is accurately gathered and used as evidence to determine how if the prototype met the listed criteria
Critiques are about the prototype and do not become personal

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Differentiation

for students having problems understanding how to simplify a design – provide them with a list of possible changes they can choose from.
For students having problems modifying their prototype for a different purpose – provide a list of possible solution and have them choose the one they want to work on.

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

Have students graph their data
Give students a budget for their material – they can determine how their modifications might impact the cost of the device. For example a cardboard tube might cost more that the coffee cups.
Example Invoice:

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