EDUCATOR PORTAL

PROJECT MATERIALS

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PROJECT RESOURCES

Learning Goals

1. The goal of this activity is to get students thinking about how they can apply what they have learned about engineering, coding, and design to their own lives and communities.

Career Connections

Standards

• 6-8.AP.13 Decompose problems and subproblems into parts to facilitate the design, implementation, and review of programs. (P3.2)
• 6-8.CS.2 Design a project that combines hardware and software components to collect and exchange data. (P5.1)

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PROJECT STEPS

Step 1 Identify common problems

As a class, brainstorm some problems that your students/community experience. Put some of these ideas on a whiteboard during this open brainstorming session.

Good questions to ask to guide this process include:

• Can someone tell me the most frustrating part of your morning?
• Do you live in a special climate? Do you get fined if you use your sprinklers at any point?
• When you were walking or driving to school, did you notice anything that was a problem, challenge or just plain annoying?

Once you have several challenges on the white board, select the top options that get the students excited (depending on how many students you have, try to have enough options for groups of 4-5 students)

Step 2 Forming groups

Ask students to select the problem that they want to tackle and ask them to split into groups. Rearrange groups as necessary to facilitate diverse perspectives in each group.

Step 3 Inventing solutions

Ask students to break down the problem first, into the steps that make it a problem. See the following example from a real student on a common problem she was facing! Ask students to identify where an invention could intervene.

Break down how the problem happened:

1. "I went to the fridge this morning to get a snack and I opened it"
2. "I got distracted and stood there staring and ice started melting and the fridge warmed"
3. "I got yelled at by my mom because food got ruined"

Think about what happened between Step 1 and Step 2. In this example the class discusses measuring:

• Temperature going up
• The amount of time the door was open

The group decided they wanted to measure the time the door is open and set an alarm when the door was open for too long.

Step 4 Detailing the creation

Ask students to draw out what the invention would look like. What pieces of technology would it use? What elements of coding would be helpful?

Ask the group questions to support inventing a detailed solution

• How would you measure the fridge door being open?
• What piece of technology did we use before to measure distance?
• What would you like the CONDITIONS to be to trigger the alarm?

Step 5 Tell us about your brilliant creations!