Troubleshooting

The author of this article states that teachers are fearful of incorporating engineering design into their science classes because it will require new skills. But really they have been doin... See More

The author of this article states that teachers are fearful of incorporating engineering design into their science classes because it will require new skills. But really they have been doing engineering all along without really thinking about it as such. The author gives examples such as these: • Making a stable and slow-descending model parachute while studying Newton’s laws of motion. • Creating an aluminum-foil boat that holds the greatest load while learning about buoyancy. • Building a model rubber-band car that travels as far as possible while investigating simple machines. These are classic experiments have been done for many years in science classrooms. To incorporate more details of engineering design the author suggests that troubleshooting techniques can bridge the gap between engineering design and scientific inquiry. He gives several examples and explanations on how to do this.

Makes engineering design accessable

The author describes ways that science teachers may already be doing some engineering design in their classrooms and the highlights the conceptual difference between doing those activities t... See More

The author describes ways that science teachers may already be doing some engineering design in their classrooms and the highlights the conceptual difference between doing those activities to model science and doing them as design challenges. The remainder of the article focuses on troubleshooting as a key feature in how students solve design challenges. At the start of the article he provides 3 troubleshooting steps and at the end describes 4 - I looked up his paper and the one that is actually there at the start but not bulleted like the rest is to Observe There Is a Problem as step 1 (or 0?) :) I liked this article and how it made doing the engineering seem like something that is achievable more than simply saying "do it" - according to this I (and probably you, too) am at least 1/2 way there - Now to work on the rest!