Summer SAVY, Session 4 Day 1, Engineering 101 (7th – 8th)
Today was a great first day in Engineering 101! We have begun to journey through what it takes to be and think like an engineer. We also explored the four major types of engineering that we will dive into later this week. Today, we learned the engineering design process through building paper airplanes and a trebuchet.
In the morning, we applied the engineering design process to rearrange the seats and tables in our classroom and applied critical thinking skills to determine how successful the outcome was. We also used critical thinking skills to construct several iterations of paper airplanes with the results being more successful than the first. Students did a great job learning from each iteration and improving their designs! Be sure to ask them what they learned through this process!
In the afternoon, we learned what forces bridges must be able to handle to remain standing, and we talked about the natural frequency of structures and materials by reviewing the Tacoma Falls Bridge collapse. We also talked about how engineers of all four main types work together to create the products and systems we use daily. We finished the day with students constructing trebuchets and learning through Productive Failure. Failure can be a difficult thing to navigate, but it’s so important to the learning process!
Some questions you can ask around the dinner table:
- What type of engineering did you and your team present today?
- What would you do differently about your team’s trebuchet design?
- Why do airplane wings have winglets?
Have a great evening. I look forward to seeing your students tomorrow morning.