Introduction:
The following
literature selections are organized into three categories: fairy and
ethnic tales, picture books, and fiction chapter books. Each
selection includes appropriate grade level range, story summary, and
possible design challenges. Some selections also include extensions .
"Engineering design challenges" are created by actionable items in
the story and lead to inquiry based team projects that have a design
theme. As an example, in the story "Island of the Blue Dolphins",
the village leaves canoes on the side of a hill for escaping a
potential attack. The heroine in the story has a difficult time
getting one of them down the hill and into the water. A "design
challenge" for the students could be to design a system to make it
easier for her to lower the canoe.
The students can
pick the character they are working for in the story to create
a design challenge. As an example they might want to work for
the wolf in the 3-pigs to find a way to catch the pigs.
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