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Teaching engineering

 

 

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Bernie Gordon
Engineering profession

 

 

Home Definitions Feedback/Rubric About Engineering
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Thinking Skills Standards Project Learning Program Overview

Essential Questions:

  1. What are the essential questions relating to this topic?  

  2. Why do I need to know about engineering as an educator/student?

  3. How does that relate to goals and measurements?

  4. How can we teach this creatively?

 

Session objectives:
 

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Distinguish between what engineers, scientists and mathematicians do
  • Reflect on some of the stereotypes and gender issues within the Engineering Profession

  • Show how all products used in the classroom ( pencils, white boards, table, chairs, etc. ) were designed and engineered.
     

Classroom Activities:
 
  1. When studying history, learn and discuss the tools used in that time for construction, military and medical.

  2. Draw a picture of an engineer and write a short paragraph of what the engineer is doing in the picture.  see an example of a picture ( two engineers discussing a design).

  3. Classroom discussion: What are some stereotypes around engineers? What causes society to have stereotypes?

  4. Working as teams, generate definitions of what Engineers, Scientists, Entrepreneur, Artist and Mathematicians do.

  5. Interview an engineer.  What do you want to know about what an engineer does?  Are they curious? How do they problem solve?

  6. Invite an engineer to the classroom to discuss their design projects.

  7. What engineers in the past and present time can we learn about what they did and their approach?  How would we find them?  Could we look up patents to find them?

  8. Design activity:  Have your students design their room at home( or the classroom).  They need to think about the need to do it and what the requirements should be. have them create specifications and then draw out the design based on the specifications. They can do the math and some science items such as air quality, habitat issues, etc.  Have them create a set of goals and how they would judge success at the end of the project.  Teams can be formed and presentations made.

 

What do Engineers do?

Work around the design process of creating, maintaining products (& systems) and process development.

They specialize in various science disciplines like civil,  electrical, mechanical, aerospace, bio, material.

They specialize in purchasing, project materials, process, quality, production

 

 
  Teaching that Engineering Design is all around us.

 

 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   

 

 

Engineering is every where Using different models of similar products, you can show the various aspects of design and its connection to science and mathematics.
http://www.rlt.com/ Wooden models of mechanical devices from DeVinci and other interesting wooden models.  Also has a list of web sites about their products.
   

 

 

 

  Prepared by  Bill Wolfson.  Copyright © 2009-11
Last Updated  09/13/2011