Grades K-1: Thinking In-Side the Box: Designing Plant Packages
Just look at the shelves in any store. Almost everything you buy comes in a package that keeps it fresh or safe from damage, or gives information for consumers. Introduce students to the field of package engineering as they learn to solve problems using the engineering design process as a package engineer would. The storybook A Gift from Fadil tells of two children in Jordan who want to give their older sister a plant from their garden as a wedding gift. Students will use their knowledge of plants, their problem-solving skills, and their creativity to design a package that can keep a plant alive and healthy for several days. Thinking like engineers even in elementary school.
Grades 2-3: Now You’re Cookin’: Designing Solar Ovens
Global real-world challenges. Relevant, green engineering solutions. In this unit, help students become problem solvers who think like green engineers. In Botswana, where firewood for cooking fuel is in short supply, people are turning to solar-powered cookers as an alternative. The storybook Lerato Cooks Up a Plan introduces the idea of using the sun as a renewable energy source and sets a framework for this unit’s activities. Students explore the concepts of thermal insulators and thermal conductors, then they test different materials to find the best insulators. As part of solving a problem using the engineering design process, they consider the life cycle and environmental impacts of each insulator, design and test their solar ovens and then do some solar cooking!
Grades 4-6: An Alarming Idea: Designing Alarm Circuits
How do electrical circuits work? Learn to think like an engineer and solve challenges along with Emily from the storybook, A Reminder for Emily. Join Emily in the Australian outback to solve the problem of needing an alarm to remind her when it’s time for chores around the ranch. Real-world hands-on activities reinforce science concepts, like conductors and insulators, schematic diagrams, and circuits as children explore electrical engineering. To build 21st century skills relevant to work and life, students put their problem solving expertise to the test in a final engineering design challenge where they plan, create, and improve their own alarm circuit.