Engineering Design Process projects coming together

Most of the groups are just about done with creating and building their Engineering Design Process projects, and although it is taking longer than I anticipated, I am pleased with the students' work and progress. They are learning to work together, taking turns in helping to build their final product, learning to stay with their plan (with encouragement from me, this is easier said than done with some of the groups), and enjoying seeing their designs take shape. Some groups are learning that what looks good on paper doesn't always work out when they put everything together. These groups are starting to work on their Improving step. The students are all so creative and inventive. I love seeing all of the different items they have created out of basic materials.


Some of the designs I am seeing take shape this week include a picture frame made from straws, a man made from spoons, a tent with the original straw as the center support, Christmas ornaments from floppy disks, several different hot air balloons, spoon turned to a ladybug, a snowflake from spoons (although not quite finished, but coming together nicely), a scarecrow that started with a plastic Easter egg, headphones that started with a plastic Easter egg, several different airplanes including one that started with a plastic tray used to hold a laser printer ink cartridge in shipping, a table hockey game, a golf club made from a straw, a couple of fish made from floppy disks, and several different cars made from straws, spoons, or floppy diskettes.

An airplane from what once held an ink cartridge in shipping.	How to turn an disk into a fish, just add fancy foam scales like this.
Wrapping the handle of a straw golf club.	Trying out the new wireless headphones of the future.
This tent started with a straw, and sleeps one plus a dog.

Creativity Unbound - The Engineering Design Process

The classes are all well underway on creating their design solutions. For some, they are finding it difficult to stick to their original designs from their technical drawings in their journals. I can see them trying to modify their designs as they build/create. While other groups are moving along smoothly, just as they planned. One thing is certain, though, all the students are really enjoying being creative and building with their hands. I've pulled an AV cart off to the side of the room filled with crafting materials that the students are able to "shop" from for their projects. The students must show me their materials list and use this list to go "shopping" for their supplies. Some groups are even telling me, "but you didn't tell us you had all of THIS STUFF!" which makes their materials selection process a little more difficult.

I'm so impressed and inspired by their creativity and ingenuity with some of the items they are coming up with from simple items blinding drawn from a bag. We have floppy discs turned into notepads and Christmas ornaments, plastic Easter eggs turned into furry legged spiders and shiny tin foil wrapped sharks, and plastic spoons turned into watering stations for birds, sailboats, and eye patches.

Using a scrapbooking paper cutter to easily cut stripe for the flag.

One of the classes had all of the teams that all drew straws, literally, (each group ended up with a straw) and almost all of the groups in this class has decided upon making flags. The amusing part is how they all have to salute the flags each week as they start to work on them, and by salute, I mean, say the "pledge of Allegiance" to the flags. The other group in this class decided to take a different route for their straw, and is working on creating a letter using pipe cleaners for the base shape, then stringing cut up pieces of the straw to form the letter.

Stringing straw pieces together to form the letter "P".

One group that I am curious to see how their project turns out is a group working together to create a rocket out of a floppy disk. I've seen their blueprints (technical drawings) but am unable to visualize it as a finished product. Another thing that intrigues me is that they require very few materials besides the original floppy diskette they started with. In fact, they have taken their disk apart to create their rocket. Will have to keep my eye on them - this should be interesting to see in the next few weeks as their plan comes together. However, they seem to have a clear vision of where they are going and are working together seamlessly.

From floppy diskette to rocket, we have a plan!

Girls STEM Camp Video

Video from "STEM Camp 2011" at Normandale "Engineering is Science and Math and Creativity Too" of girls building hovercrafts. How cool is that?!


Mind you, this is not from our area, and does not involve our students - but with USF's Girls STEM Summits in May every year, this could happen. :)

Inspiring Elementary Engineering

You may be reading this today thinking there is something different about this blog. Very subtle changes, mind you, but big changes in store for this coming school year. You may have noticed the name has changed. That's right, the name is changing from Engineering by Design to Inspiring Elementary Engineering. We want to inspire elementary students to think-outside-the-box, and problem solve like so many engineers in the field often have to do on a daily basis. Along with the name change, I've changed the logo and banner a little. This is not the "official" logo for our District's Inspiring Elementary Engineering course that is being taught in some elementary schools throughout the district this coming school year; however, while I wait for the official design to be created and circulated, I came up with my own design using Photoshop CS5's 3D tools.

I also thought it was only right to change the name in the address to this blog, just slightly, to reflect the new class. Traditionally "EBD" has another acronym meaning used in ESE (special ed) classes. While we were trying to get away from this meaning, I thought we should stress the Engineering factor of the class. Since I will be teaching this course at Braden River Elementary, I added the BRE part to the address link.

I've also made a few changes to the left sidebar by adding links for teachers, and students, and included a news feeder to Discovery Science. It is my goal to not only make this a place for parents to read about their students' progress in my elementary engineering class, but to also make this a resource site for other engineering, especially elementary engineering teachers, and a fun site for students to visit and learn more about what goes into design and engineering. Please bookmark this page and visit it often throughout the year for updates in our engineering process as well as other reference information in STEM education (Science, Engineering, Technology, and Math).

Designing Logos

Our first meeting of the Braden River Elementary School Engineering by Design Enrichment Club kicked off today, Monday, March 28, 2011, with 19 of its 21 registered members in attendance. To further build excitement and club spirit, the task for the day was breaking up into think tank companies and designing logos for each. After designing logos, the students designed logos to be transferred onto t-shirts to be worn on Mondays, our club meeting days.

Below are the results of the logo designs:

As an example, I showed the students a t-shirt design I came up with along with a group of teachers during a three-day Engineering by Design workshop.

The design to the left is a photoshop rendition of the design drawn on a small t-shirt with fabric markers. You  can click on the image to zoom.

The workshop was on the I3 project which focused on the concepts of Innovation, Invention, and Inquiry.

Lily, John, Sara, and Ethan’s design reflecting that engineering and ingenuity begins in the minds. (And thinking along the lines of “Odyssey of the Mind”.) the TE in the middle stands for Technology and Engineering, two of the four STEM components.

Markella, Grace,  Jamie, and Kennedy’s Victorian company’s design.

Ben, Tyler, Alex A., and Jayden drew inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci for their company’s design, incorporating da Vinci’s flying machine into their design.

Max, Hunter, Nicolas, and Tucker also took their cue from STEM using gears for Science and Technology.

The combined designing creativity of Jack, Eric, Alex D. and Cooper decided on a technologically advanced military approach with the helicopter, gas mask with night vision, and stealth bomber plane for their Black Ops  Brothers company.