The Engineering Learning Cycle
By Andrew Stillman, physics and engineering teacher and expert user of Modeling Instruction. In 2011 he developed .
See Fall 2010 slide presentation on STEM integration:
Our goal is to create an engineering education program in which the other STEM disciplines (science, math, technology) are deeply integrated. As such, we require a learning cycle that situates the work of engineers in full relation to scientific inquiry, mathematical tools and technologies.
We understand the work of scientists and mathematicians to inquire primarily about “WHAT IS?” Mathematics seeks to formalize “what is” in the realm of abstract possibility. Science is the use of mathematical tools and conceptual models to represent relationships “WHAT IS” in the realm of observable phenomena. By contrast, technologists and designers inquire primarily about “WHAT CAN BE?” In this framework, engineering resides at the nexus of theoretical and practical modes of inquiry, and naturally integrates all three of the other STEM disciplines.
We can imagine two useful “eddies” within the “Engineering Cycle” that might organize our development of learning sequences:
“The Engineering Cycle” as interplay between
“The Modeling Cycle” and “The Design Cycle.”
What is?What can be?
These two cycles enable us to coherently represent the discursive relationships that exist between the STEM disciplines, and to use this successive interplay as a framework for motivating different modes of inquiry. In designing inquiry-based instruction with these linked cycles, units can be successively framed and motivated by the theoretical questions that arise from pursuing design challenges and by the design possibilities that arise from new theoretical models.
Representational Tools
Functions and Systems
A function is a defined system that transforms inputs into outputs. Functions may be analyzed as a composition of sub-functions. Functions can be understood as the modular building blocks of designed systems. The specification of a function requires a full understanding of controlling variables, relationships between inputs and outputs, and the constraints and laws that underlie these relationships.
We have are experimenting with some common representations for modeling functions:
Representational Tools for Defining System Constraints
Among common system constraints are those defined by conserved quantities. Energy representations are derived from Modeling Instruction. See
Pie Charts Accounting for Energy Storage Modes
and Transfers Across System Boundary
Bar Charts Accounting for Energy Storage Modes
and Transfers Across System Boundary