Training Guide for Middle School
Engineering Design in Oregon Science Classrooms
Day 2
Interactive teacher workshop on using the Engineering Design Process to improve teachers’ effectiveness at teaching science
Copyright 2013, Oregon University System, All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents – Day 2
Objective: Help make a “trainer” successful in leading an interactive teacher workshop on using the Engineering Design Process to improve teachers’ effectiveness at teaching science.
Day 2, Welcome (8:00-8:10)………………………………………………………………….4
Day 2, Unit 1 (8:10-9:45) ………………………………………………………………..……4
How the Engineering Design Process applies to teaching and learning science in middle school
· Engineering design in the Oregon standard
· Engineering Design Process for Middle School
· What the students should learn about the process
· How the process can be used to enhance the learning of science as a sister to the scientific inquiry process
Day 2, Unit 2 (10:00-11:45) ……………………………………………………………...... 10
Example hands-on exercise featuring the Engineering Design Process for learning Earth and Space Science (Bioswales)
· Introduction including connections to Oregon standard
· Hands-on activity in groups
· Small Group Discussion
Lunch (11:45-12:30)
Day 2, Unit 3 (12:30-1:45) ……………………………………………………………..……16
Example hands-on exercise featuring the Engineering Design Process for learning Physical science (Ultimate Speed Challenge)
· Introduction including connections to Oregon standard
· Hands-on activity in groups
· Small Group Discussion
Day 2, Unit 4 (1:45-2:00) …………………………………………….………………….…..20
Troubleshooting as an opportunity for learning science
Day 2, Unit 5 (2:15-3:15) …………………………………………….………………….…..20
Formative Assessment of Engineering Design process
Day 2, Unit 6 (3:15-4:15) …………………………………………….………………….…..20
Integration of engineering design into lesson plans
Day 2, Wrap Up (4:15-4:30) …………………………………………………………..…….21
Workshop Script
Day 2, Welcome (8:00-8:10)
· Introductions – Facilitators/Participants
· Workshop Goals (on slide and poster)
· Logistics – description of baskets
· Workshop and Folder Overview
· Group Norms
· Day 2 Agenda review (slide)
· Explain colored dots or numbers on name tags if using them to assign people to break-out groups
Day 2, Unit 1 (8:10-9:45)
Facilitator Timeline
8:10-9:45 – How the Engineering Design Process applies to teaching and learning science in middle school (Activity)
8:10-8:40 – Commingling Core and Content
8:40-9:00 – Engineering Design Process for Middle School
9:00-9:45 – What the students should learn about the process
8:00-8:10 Participant Agenda and Overview
Give the participants a general outline for the day so they know what to expect. If you are facilitating a 1-day workshop, review the training materials in common (Day 1 workshop) and modify today’s agenda as needed. Be sure to:
· State the purpose of the workshop and explain how participants will work together
· Ask participants if they are familiar with engineering design and have used it in their classrooms
Agenda
8:00-8:10 Overview and Welcome
8:10-9:45 How the engineering-design process applies to teaching and learning science in middle school
9:45-10:00 Break
10:00-11:45 Bioswales: Hands-on Lesson featuring the Engineering Design Process for learning Earth and Space Science
11:45-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:45 Ultimate Speed Challenge: Hands-on Lesson featuring the Engineering Design Process for learning Physical Science
1:45-2:00 Troubleshooting as an opportunity for learning science
2:00-2:15 Break
2:15-3:15 Formative Assessment of Engineering Design process
3:15-4:15 Teachers Incorporate the Engineering Design Process into their Lesson Plans
4:15-4:30 Closing Activities
8:10 – 9:00 Engineering Design in the Oregon Standards
Engineering Design Standard – The Engineering Design Process, in the Oregon Standard, is different at each grade level of the middle school band. It is essential that these standards be addressed in contexts that promote scientific inquiry, use of evidence, critical thinking, making connections, and communication.
Preparing for the lesson
1. On strips of paper, write the following: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, and 8th Grade.
2. Place the sheets in a bowl.
3. Arrange participants into 3 groups. If you are running a large workshop, have five or six groups of 3 teams and five or six bowls of paper strips.
4. Make sure that the Engineering Design pages of the Oregon Science Standards are available at each table.
5. Make sure that each group of participants has a chart pack (flip chart), ideally on an easel, and one or more markers.
Presenting the Lesson (8:10, 20 minutes)
1. Have each group choose a strip of paper out of the bowl (5 minutes).
2. As a group, participants will draw a representation of the Engineering Design Standard that go along with the grade level they selected (15 minutes). The drawing can include words, callouts, illustrations and pictures. It can even be on several sheets of paper if needed. The drawing may be very rudimentary but that’s ok. The point is for this diagram to help another person understand the standard for that particular grade level. For example, if a group selected 7th Grade, they will draw their interpretation of the core standard “Engineering design is a process of identifying needs, defining problems, identifying constraints, developing solutions, and evaluating proposed solutions.” And also the content standards:
· Define a problem that addresses a need and identify constraints that may be related to possible solutions.
· Design, construct, and test a possible solution using appropriate tools and materials. Evaluate proposed solutions to identify how design constraints are addressed.
· Explain how new scientific knowledge can be used to develop new technologies and how new technologies can be used to generate new scientific knowledge.
Facilitator Instructions (8:30, 30 minutes)
When each group has finished creating their picture or series of pictures, have them complete a Core and Content Standards Tour/Carousel.
Engineering Design Core and Content Standards Tour
· Each small group will rotate to 5 stations of other participant sketches (5 minutes each).
· At each station, participants will review the Core and Content Standards for each grade level.
· Rotating groups will provide feedback with sticky notes.
· Groups review feedback (5 minutes).
What the students should learn about the process (9:00)
Show the slide, “The Engineering Design Process for Middle School” to have a quick reference on the Engineering Design Process. For more detailed descriptions of the process, download and review the Middle School Primer (http://www.ous.edu).
The most basic level of the Engineering Design Process, a level that all middle school students should be comfortable doing, is to identify and define a problem or need. They should be able to propose potential solutions and design a prototype.
Assessing students’ understanding of the Engineering Design Process is important to understanding how to best create learning environments that successfully use engineering design in the classroom.
Index Card Chair Engineering (9:05, 5 min)
Objective
Build an index card chair that can support the weight of an apple, orange or unopened can of soda.
Background
The action of solving problems also opens up the creative process for students, thus enhancing the engagement of students in the classroom learning. Reports indicate that when students are building and creating things in the classroom, the engagement level is consistently intense. It does not allow a student to simply sit back and wait to be told what to do, but instead requires that the student create, test, and evaluate for themselves. This in turn leads to genuine decision making, which should be an integral part of the entire curriculum. The goal of problem solving is to educate students to be able to use engineering and/or scientific processes no matter what the problem is that they encounter.
Preparing to Present the Lesson
1. Hand out the materials. Each group will need:
· 3”x5” index cards (6)
· Scissors
· Large apple, orange or unopened can of soda
· Index Card Chair Challenge sheets (found in the Workshop Handouts file)
2. Identify a work area that can accommodate the construction and testing of the chairs.
Presenting the Lesson (9:05, 20 minutes)
1. Explain the lesson. Tell participants that they’ll be working in pairs to design a chair that can support the weight of an apple or orange out of index cards. You can also use an unopened can of soda if that is more convenient.
2. Hand out the Index Card Chair Challenge Sheet.
3. Have participants brainstorm two chair designs.
4. Keep the participants on time. Give a few minutes of warning when the activity is about to end.
5. After the participants have built their chair, line the chairs up side by side on a table and see which chairs can hold an apple or orange.
Sharing and Cleanup (9:25, 20 minutes)
1. After the activity, have participants reflect on designing their chair and share what they feel students should learn about the Engineering Design Process. Be sure each group has their EDP handout on their tables or that you still have the slide available on the overhead projector. Encourage the participants to think about each step of the process and create their list. Be sure that each group has a flip chart available to record their answers to the following questions. Let the participants know the time at the half-way mark and then again a few minutes before the time is up.
What should students know about:
1. Defining a problem that addresses a need?
2. Identifying criteria, constraints and priorities?
3. Describing relevant scientific principles and knowledge?
4. Investigating possible solutions?
5. Designing and constructing a proposed solution?
6. Testing a proposed solution and collecting relevant data?
7. Evaluating the proposed solution in terms of design and performance criteria, constraints, priorities and trade-offs?
8. Identifying possible design improvements?
9. The EDP in general?
Additional questions if groups finish early:
· When you were given the challenge, what did you do or think?
· What different designs did you see and which ones were the most effective? Why?
· How many designs did you try to build before you got one that could support the can of food?
· Did you brainstorm different solutions? Did that help you make a decision as to what would be the best chair to build?
· Would it have helped to have other tools to build your chair?
· What would happen if the chair failed?
3. Let the participants know that this is a warm up exercise and not intended to be used by their students. Three engineering design lessons/activities are provided for classroom use. Two of the lessons will be covered later today and one is available online.
Dismiss for break at 9:45.
Day 2, Unit 2 (10:00-12:00)
Example hands-on exercise featuring the Engineering Design Process for learning Earth and Space Science
The hands-on activities in this workshop are only partial lessons and participants do not have enough time to develop a deep understanding of the engineering design concepts introduced. However, participants will learn the Engineering Design Process and how it relates to scientific inquiry during the hands-on portion of the workshop.
Facilitator Timeline
10:00-11:45 – Bioswales Design Activity
10:00-10:40 – Presenting and Completing the Lesson
10:40-11:00 – Sharing and Cleanup
11:00-11:25 – Scientific Inquiry vs. the Engineering Design Process
11:25-11:45 – Small Group Discussion
Bioswales Design
The Bioswales Lesson Plan includes an optional exploration step where students experiment with different filter materials such as cheesecloth, sand, soil, gravel, limestone, and paper to better understand their properties and abilities. They can use what they learn to inform the subsequent design step to determine the combination and sequence of materials that best clean polluted water. The Lesson plan provides two other options: (1) A data analysis activity based on provided data and (2) Skipping the exploration step and move directly to the design step.
To save time, workshop participants will follow the second option above and use a pre-completed classroom data table that provides experimental results for several filter materials. Participants will use this data on the Bioswales Data Table, Completed and the Engineering Design Process to design their filters.
Key Concepts
By reading the data tables, participants will find that many factors influence the filter’s ability to filter the water and prepare to jump into the Engineering Design Process and enhance the learning of science.
Workshop Materials - Prepare to have participants work in groups of four. For a workshop of 40 participants, you will need 10 sets of materials – see the Lesson Plan. Adjust these quantities according to the expected size of your workshop.
Preparing to Present the Lesson
1. Read through the entire lesson and be ready to discuss the data collection portion and how it was done.
2. Make copies of the following for each group of teachers.
a. Bioswales Lesson Plan
b. Bioswales Vocab Alert!
c. Bioswales Article
d. Bioswales Exploration Activity
e. Bioswales Class Data Table, Filter Materials
f. Bioswales Data Analysis Activity
g. Bioswales Data Table, Completed
h. Bioswales Design Activity
3. Prepare a test containers for each group of teachers as described in the Lesson Plan.
4. Prepare the dirty water solution by adding tea and lemon juice as described in the Lesson Plan.
5. Prepare the other materials as described in the Lesson Plan.
6. Show participants the materials that will be tested
7. Distribute materials to groups.
Presenting the Lesson (10:00, 40 minutes)
1. Point out the following materials in the participants’ packets or pass them out:
a. Bioswales Article (one per person)
b. Bioswales Data Table, Completed sheet (at least one per group)
c. Bioswales Design Activity handout (at least one per group)
2. Give them a few minutes to read the Bioswales Article.
3. Summarize the options provided for an Exploration Step in the Lesson Plan, mentioning the data collection methods and data analysis procedures that can be used in the classroom. Explain that because the focus of the workshop is engineering design the exploration step is being skipped in the workshop to focus the available time on the design step.
4. Have participants fill out the criteria, priorities and constraints on the Bioswales Design Activity handout. You might want to set the criteria as a whole—or the teacher groups can decide for themselves what their filter goals should be. Either way, try to be as specific as possible. For example: instead of saying the filter should clean the water, say the filter should lower the turbidity to 50 ml or more.[1] Other criteria to consider include how long it should take the water filter to work. Reviewing the data table should help the teachers develop their criteria.