Think about any tool or technology. What purpose does it serve? What problem or need does it address? How and why has it changed over time, and how might it change in the future? What content knowledge would be important to have if you were creating or improving it?
These are the sorts of questions engineers engage in when they are designing technology to meet a need or solve a problem. The engineering design process (EDP) is a flexible sequence of action steps that helps engineers identify and define a problem, explore aspects of the problem, generate ideas for addressing the problem, and then create solutions that test and refine those ideas. Harnessing this kind of thinking in the classroom excites and motivates students because it connects the real world, school, and the process of creating and improving technology. Figure 1, , illustrates a traditional model of the engineering design process.
Figure 1
Figure 2 shows a model of the engineering design process created by Engineering is Elementary®, a project of the National Center for Technological Literacy® at the Museum of Science, Boston. This model works well for classrooms looking to adopt EDP because it is both simple and adaptable. Note that the elements of the design process in this model are not sequential. Numbering the steps and completing them in rigid sequence does not reflect the real-world processes used for creating and improving technology. In fact, a lock-step approach to design squashes innovation, creativity, and risk taking. EDP is supposed to be flexible, iterative, creative, and learner focused. Each action in the model provides a possible point of entry to achieve a goal or solve a problem.
Figure 2
Although a graphic representation can show an EDP model, teachers need to experience the process in action to fully understand it. Here's how to use a simple design challenge to get teachers exploring EDP and thinking about how they might use it in their own classrooms.
Activity: Introduce EDP to Your Teachers
Step 1: Plan your teams. To foster communication and participation, limit each team to two or three teachers.
Step 2: Communicate expectations and purpose. These can be as simple as expecting all team members to participate and letting the teams know they will receive a design challenge that has many possible solutions.
Step 3: Introduce the challenge. Challenge teams to build a paper tower using the following criteria:
- Make the tower as tall as you can in five minutes or less.
- Use only two sheets of newspaper.
- Do not use anything to prop up the tower; it must be freestanding.
These criteria are intentionally vague. Specific criteria would eliminate the creativity from the challenge and essentially provide a set of steps for all teams to follow in exactly the same way. Each team can attempt to make the tower as many times as necessary, which may mean they need multiple sheets of newspaper. Just remind the teams that the final product must be constructed with only two sheets of newspaper. <!--Before they begin building, ask the teams to brainstorm which skills the challenge requires. As they complete the challenge, teams should track (through a mind map or web-like graphic) the skills they are applying.-->
Step 4: Reflect and improve. Following the completion of the challenge, ask the teams to discuss what went well, what did not go well, and how they could have improved their performance. Consider allowing them an opportunity to improve their designs. Have teams brainstorm a list of skills required to complete the challenge, and ask teams to develop a definition of the engineering design process based on these skills.
Step 5: Introduce and discuss the EDP model. Now that the teams have experienced a design challenge and developed their definitions of EDP, introduce the EDP models depicted in Figures 1 and 2. Ask teams to discuss these models and use them to explain how they approached the design challenge. How do the models compare to the definition they created? Often, teams will offer concrete suggestions to improve or tailor EDP models to reflect their processes. This reflection mirrors the improvement or refinement stage inherent in engineering design. It also underscores the iterative nature of EDP.
Teaching by Design
Once teachers have experienced EDP first hand and begun to view learning challenges through the EDP lens, encourage them to present design challenges in their own classrooms. For students, learning about EDP through design challenges provides them with opportunities to develop an innovative attitude using tangible goals (for example, creating a paper tower) that they can transfer to learning goals (for example, writing a persuasive essay). Brainstorming sessions in any subject become opportunities to ask and imagine, math problems become opportunities to plan and create, and peer reflections on writing pieces become opportunities to ask and improve. Teachers can use the dos and don'ts in the table below as general guidelines for integrating EDP into their approaches to lesson design.
Figure 3
Lessons designed with the EDP model in mind encourage students to reflect and continuously think about the many possible solutions to a problem instead of merely completing a task or looking for one right answer. Students adopt an innovative attitude to solving problems. Any learning experience, then, can become an opportunity to reflect and improve—not just an opportunity to simply get the work done.
