Energetic Engineers

It was so nice seeing and chatting with many of you on Thursday night at the Mosaic Dessert Social. We hope that your kiddos went to bed alright after the initial sugar rush! I know that Mr. Eaton and Mr. Parker were very thankful for their cookie delivery!

This week the kids learned all about the Engineering Design Process through several different activities. We learned many new things about what technology is. Understandably, many of the students thought technology meant that something is electronic and plugs in. They were shocked when we held up items like a pencil or a paperclip and said that these were also examples of technology because they were created by engineers to meet a need or solve a problem.

They learned about the word prototype while viewing an everyday engineer at work as he tried to develop a new way of feeding his neighbor's cat. Throughout this video, the narrator followed the steps of the process to create a piece of technology that could help meet this need.

The young engineers got to put their new knowledge to the test on Thursday and Friday when they used the EDP to solve their own problem. They were given a task to create a tower  at least 10 inches high that could hold an animal (beenie baby) for at least ten seconds. The groups worked together to imagine ideas, plan using discussion and sketches, create using the materials available to them, and then improve after initial testing. As you'll see from the video and photos, they were very excited and engaged and everyone was successful!

Next week we will continue to think like scientists and engineers during our weather and climate unit. The scientists will be learning about climate and weather forecasting. They will then chart the weather of a location of their choice using digital tools and Google spreadsheets.

The location that they choose is also one that is inclined to severe weather of some sort. (i.e. blizzards, hurricanes, ice storms, tornados, or floods). In pairs, they will research and become "experts" on this type of extreme weather and how it affects their location. They will then use the EDP to design an idea for how to minimize the impact of the extreme weather. We will use other Google tools to present our findings. We can't wait to see what these amazing thinkers come up with!