Summer SAVY, Session 1 Day 1, Intro to Chemical Engineering: Engineering With Play Dough (1st-2nd)
What a wonderful first day of SAVY and our Introduction to Chemical Engineering! This morning, we created play-dough sculptures to describe ourselves and our interests and made our class promise. As a class, we promised each other that we would 1. Be respectful. 2. Be Responsible. 3. Be helpful. 4. Be kind. 5. Be safe. And most importantly, 6. HAVE FUN! Please ask your engineer for ways they embodied each aspect of our promise in their learning today.
Our course this week will focus on how engineers use the design process to create technologies. This morning, we dove deep into what an engineer is and does. After brainstorming several ideas about engineers and some wonderful real-world examples, we determined that engineers use science and math to solve problems through technology. We then became engineers and had to solve the problem of keeping a book off a table using only gummy bears and toothpicks. Following the engineering and design process, everyone succeeded!
This afternoon, we explored the second component of technology. Initially, learners defined technology as something that helps us do things using electricity. After learning that technology has existed for hundreds of years, before even electricity, and exploring real-world technologies, our definition of technology was amended to an object that is created to solve problems. Our learners enjoyed reading “What Do You Do With An Idea?” to help set the mindset of being thinkers, problem solvers, and engineers who persevere.
Below are some guiding questions you could ask your child around the dinner table tonight:
- What is an engineer? What are some steps that they all follow? What characteristics do all engineers share?
- How were you an engineer today?
- Where are some examples of technology you see in your daily life? What problem was it created to solve?
- What goal did you set for this course?
I am looking forward to meeting with our young engineers tomorrow! We will delve into the steps in the Engineering Design Process and how chemical engineers use those steps in their work.
– Amy Elizabeth Callis