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						Studying STEM by Building Guitars 
					
				
			
		

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						Studying STEM by Building Guitars 
					
				
			
		

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The engineering design process encompasses a mindset that emphasizes open-ended problem solving and encourages students to learn from failure. Experiencing the engineering design process nurtures students' abilities to create innovative solutions to challenges in any subject!

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Challenge lessons teach many of these lessons.

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Rocket Challenge Lesson and More Design Challenges

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Rocket Challenge Lesson and More Design Challenges

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Northeastern University for STEM education

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NASA lesson

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Lesson Plans and Resources by Design Squad PBS

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Lesson Plans . DESIGN SQUAD GLOBAL | PBS KIDS

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Engage students in engineering with DESIGN SQUAD Lesson Plans that introduce engineering concepts and the design process through hands on activities, video clips, episodes and more.

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How to Apply Design Thinking in Class, Step By Step

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How to Apply Design Thinking in Class, Step By Step

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by Mindshift

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But in a classroom that is a space of possibility, the students have agency, and the products and processes can be moving targets. You can all this student-centered space "Studio Time," when students adjust to a new set of expectations that go with the privilege of freely creating with materials. Allen Trent, who wrote in " De-centering the Teacher: a Practitioner's Account " about his experience de-centering himself in the classroom, said he opened up discussion of the class routines to the students, who thoughtfully re-designed their classroom experience, thereby creating a space of possibility.
Can I run a design thinking classroom on Tuesdays from 1-3pm?
You can run a flexible studio space in your classroom for a certain part of the day. "Choice time" is a common example of a modified space of possibility in a traditional classroom. If you extend the duration of "choice time" and give your students some simple materials and real-world challenges to choose from, you are on your way to running a problem-based learning design studio.

I am not a designer. Where do I find curriculum?

The first place to seek the curriculum is in your classroom's daily activities. You can start by talking about what designers do in the world. Ask the students if they know about careers that use design. Talk about and define engineering, architecture, interior design, product design. Then ask them to start thinking like designers. Look around you. What would you like to change or improve about the classroom? Is there a new tool your classroom could use? If they could re-design the classroom, how would they configure it? What kind of furniture is best for learning? What does it look like? If we wanted to design a rainwater storage system for our school, what would it look like? What about school buses or cars of the future? These are questions that your students will have lots of ideas about. Brainstorming ideas on the board can help students develop concepts on their own.

How much time do I need?

A good studio experience is about 5-15 minutes of presentation and discussion and then about a 45-60 minutes of hands-on work time, plus 10-15 minutes of peer critique. During studio time the teacher circulates, assists students, and helps keep them engaged.

I am not an artist. What materials do I need and how do I help the kids?

Most professional designers work with simple materials in the design process, and kids should too. Arrange the room so kids can work on flat surfaces in flexible groups. I recommend tag board, tape, and scissors for 3D building and large sheets of construction paper, pencils, and markers as 2D design studio tools. It's best to keep these tools off to the side so students can gather them as they need and keep their studio surfaces uncluttered.

You can best assist the students by answering their questions with questions. If a student asks, "What should I do?" you can answer with, " If you wanted to improve the design of (insert a common object), what would you change?" This is higher-level inquiry, because you do not have the right answer. The answer lies in the student's perceptions of the world and his design ideas. This is student-centered learning. You may have to ask questions to understand a student model or drawing, and then the student can explain their work to you.

DIG INTO DESIGN THINKING

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Wow, it gets loud in here and some students are distracted. How do I keep order?

As in gym, the studio works best with a clear set of rules laid out before students begin. It can be useful to show students pictures of adults working in studios, and to show them how these kinds of workplaces look. You can describe how these adults work in their studios: They walk over to a colleague to ask a question, they ask their peers for help instead of waiting for their boss, and they use quiet voices while they are working so their colleagues can focus. Set specific expectations regarding what you want to see when they are finished (perhaps one drawing and/or one model). A good closing exercise after the first Design Studio is to discuss how the work environment functioned. Were shared tools in a good place? Did we have all the tools we needed? What can we do as a group to make our studio a better work environment?

OK, now I have a room full of cardboard constructions and drawings. What have the students learned?

Assessing studio learning is effectively done through peer critique. This echoes portfolio review and other innovative processes for student-centered assessment, and is used throughout the design professions. Peer critique can go quickly and efficiently with students grade 3 and above. Here's how it works:

Students get a ten-minute warning to wrap up.

Students clean up the studio and leave out a drawing and/or a model.

Students gather around one table group with their work in front of them.

The instructor is facilitator. The instructor asks, "Look around at your classmate's work. Pick out a model or drawing that shows an interesting solution to the design challenge. I will ask you to share two reasons why you think it is an effective solution."

When hands go up, call on a students and ask them to explain why it is effective. Once they have made one or two good points, say "thank you!" and move onto the next student. Keep the discussion moving, and encourage the students to say, "this is successful because..." rather than "I like." You will hear the students using the language of design and note that they are comparing their own work to that of their peers. This dialogue reveals student understanding and can often reveal student intent that is hard to gauge from the product alone. If you have a large class, do peer critique on a few projects each week instead of all at once.

Some parts worked, but some parts didn't. I think my students need more structure. How can I modify this to fit my students' abilities?

The kind of product students make can be vastly variable. You can simply start with a discussion of design and brainstorming. This is a core element of design process. You can also work with very specific challenges, like this one, to introduce the design process with very clear constraints. Small steps towards working on open-ended problems will help scaffold students who are unaccustomed to working this way at school.

There are many great resources online for design thinking. See the links at the bottom of this post.

OK, the kids liked it, and I liked it. How do I explain the benefits to my school and parents?

Design thinking, which is a variation of problem based learning, is an effective means of differentiating for student strengths. It reveals strengths in 2D and 3D spatial reasoning. It reveals inventiveness, collaboration, empathy and resilience. It encourages self-direction, ideation, and collaboration. Design thinking can become a part of your teaching toolkit and a means for sharing student capacities that are not usually assessed. The most significant investment is in the educator's shift to a student-centered space of possibility, even if just for one afternoon a week. This reveals to students that you trust them with their learning.

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How to Apply Design Thinking in Class, Step By Step

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For educators ready to try the idea of design thinking, you'll be glad to know it does not require extensive transformation of your classroom. That said, it can be a transformative experience for all involved. Here, we try to answer your questions about the different integrating components of a design learning experience into familiar, pre-existing scenarios that play out in every school.

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In this two-part activity, students design and build Rube Goldberg machines. This open-ended challenge employs the engineering design process and may have a pre-determined purpose, such as rolling a marble into a cup from a distance, or let students decide the purposes.
This engineering curriculum meets Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Pre-Req Knowledge

In order to understand compound machines, it is helpful if students are familiar with the six individual simple machines and their abilities to make work easier, as discussed in lessons 1-3 of this unit. Compound machines are described in Lesson 4. This activity works is intended as a finale to the simple machines unit.

Learning Objectives

After this activity, students should be able to:

List the general steps of the engineering design process.

Think critically about the importance of the machines they encounter in life.

Use their knowledge of simple and compound machines to design and build a small Rube Goldberg machine.

Educational Standards
Suggest an alignment not listed above

Materials List

During the first part of the activity, which is the design of the machines, tell the students that the following materials will be available for them. Anything else they think of requires teacher approval, for example, dominoes, an egg, a wooden dowel, wheels, etc.

hot glue

construction paper

marbles

small paper cups (such as Dixie cups)

paper towel tubes

string

jumbo paper clips

rubber bands

PVC pipe

Introduction/Motivation

We have been learning about simple and compound machines, calculating mechanical advantage and thinking about machines as a part of society. What is a simple machine? A simple machine makes work easier for people. We also know that engineers build complex machines upon a foundation of knowledge of simple machines. Now we will look at how all of these things that we have been studying come together, as we take on the role of the engineers who design machines. We are not going to design just any machine though; we are going to invent Rube Goldberg machines. Recall that a Rube Goldberg is a contraption that accomplishes a simple task in a fantastically complicated way.

Several steps compose the process of inventing, regardless of the type of machine you want to create. Who knows the first step in the engineering design process? The first step in designing a good solution is to define the need and the audience. You will need to work with your team to decide what you will be designing. What is the problem you are trying to solve, and who are you designing it for?

Next, an engineer thinks about information that might help to solve the problem. Needed information might include the constraints or limitations on the problem, such as materials or time or safety. For this project, we have some materials already available and we want to use at least three simple machines. We definitely have limited time to our class period, and we want to make sure our contraption is safe.

After all of these things have been decided, engineers brainstorm design ideas. With your team, you will come up with many different simple machine ideas that could be used to accomplish your final task. Then your engineering team will choose which ones to use and create a plan or drawing of the design.

Why is it important to design your machine first, either as a drawing or a clear idea in your mind? (Answer: To just start building could lead you to a machine you don't like or doesn't work, and we don't want to waste materials and time.)

Make sure your machine has many different steps and motions in order to complete the end function and look like a Rube Goldberg. Professional engineers draw their inventions before the thing is built, so we will do that, too. Remember to include a materials list.

Once you have a drawing and materials list, and the design has been approved by the teacher, begin building. Remember that good engineers try not to use more material than necessary and are interested in an attractive product that works as designed. After everyone is finished, we will rotate through and see all the machines in action.

Vocabulary/Definitions

Rube Goldberg: Cartoonist and engineer who poked fun at overly complicated machines; a machine that operates in a complicated way in which the procedure could have been much simpler.

specification: An exact and detailed statement of something to be built.

Procedure

Before the Activity

For Part 1, gather paper and pencils for students to draw their designs and list any additional materials.

Gather all materials, including any additional materials requested by groups.

With the Students

Part 1: Design the Rube Goldberg Machine (25 minutes)

1. In groups of three, have student engineering teams decide on simple tasks to create machines for, intended audiences, and any information they know that will help them solve the problem.

2. With every group member contributing ideas, have students brainstorm ideas about how they will accomplish the simple task (such as getting a marble in a cup one meter away) in an overly complex way. Remind them that they must use at least three simple machines in their final designs.

3. Next, have each team collectively produce machine drawings that include dimensions.

4. Have teams include materials lists, including any special-request materials.

5. Teams show their designs and materials lists to the teacher for approval.

6. Have students make design alterations if not immediately approved. After approval, make the design more specific or the drawing more detailed as other groups finish up their designs.

Part 2: Build the Rube Goldberg (50-60 minutes)

1. Have students spend a few minutes reviewing their drawings from Part 1 before starting to build.

2. Have student teams gather their materials and begin to build their designs.

Emphasize that each group member participates.

Direct the students to follow the planned design as closely as possible.

1. Once teams, have completed their designs, have them test their machines.

2. Allow student teams to return to their seats and make adjustments, as necessary.

3. Have each engineering team display its Rube Goldberg contraptions to the class during the last 10 minutes of the period.

Attachments

Troubleshooting Tips

Remind students that the Rube Goldberg cartoon machines would probably never work in the real world, so they should not design something that closely resembles his cartoon, because they probably would not be able to build it.

Assessment

Pre-Activity Assessment

Discussion Questions: Solicit, integrate and summarize student responses.

What is a Rube Goldberg? (Answer: A machine that does a simple task in a complicated way.)

Do such machines exist in the world? (Answer: Sure, otherwise Rube Goldberg would not have made it to the dictionary. They are any wacky looking device that seems too complex for its own good; moreover, it probably does a task you don't really need done in the first place.)

Activity Embedded Assessment

Activity Discussion: Review and discuss the activity with the entire class. Use the answers to gauge students' mastery of what it means to design and build. Be sure to cover both the process and the purpose of its design.

How does Rube Goldberg fit in to all of this? (Answer: His cartoons help us think about the meaning of machines in our society.)

Engineering Design Process: Have students acknowledge each step of the engineering design process as they are completing them. Write the steps on the board for student reference. The steps include: Define the problem, gather information, brainstorm ideas, select the most promising idea, explain your design, build and test your design, and redesign for improvement based on what you have learned from testing.

Post-Activity Assessment

Rube Goldberg Worksheet: Use this worksheet to assign students to take a closer look at a Rube Goldberg cartoon and, drawing upon previously learned concepts, develop arguments that say the machine could in fact work.

Activity Extensions

Have students explain how they would find the mechanical advantage of their Rube Goldberg machines.

Activity Scaling

For lower grades, designate a specific function for the machine. Students' machines should include at least three steps to completing the task.

Contributors Michael J. Bendewald; Janet Yowell

Copyright © 2007 by Regents of the University of Colorado

Supporting Program Integrated Teaching and Learning Program, College of Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

Acknowledgements

This digital library content was developed by the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program under National Science Foundation GK-12 grant no. 0338326. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

Last modified: June 6, 2018

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Design and Build a Rube Goldberg - Activity

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In this two-part activity, students design and build Rube Goldberg machines. This open-ended challenge employs the engineering design process and may have a pre-determined purpose, such as rolling a marble into a cup from a distance, or let students decide the purposes.

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How To Make Bubbles | 3+ Bubble Recipes & Bubble Tricks

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Use glycerin or corn syrup to make extra-strong super soap bubbles in this fun science project! Learn more about surface tension, and how bubbles form.

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The Value of Prototypes

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Design your own video game.

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Pixel Press is a technology company focused on building engaging mobile gaming experiences for both sides of the brain: the analytical left side and the creative right side. Our products are fun for all ages, and flexible enough for many applications.

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Design Make Share: An Outline for MAKING in the Classroom

Ready to dive into 3D printing in the classroom? Your students and colleagues will be energized by having access to the latest technology. But be careful, if you just start printing without a clear instructional plan in place, your 3D printer could become just a toy factory.

Design Make Share is a method for integrating MAKING in the classroom. This method applies to 3D printers and any other type of MAKING from cardboard and scissors to laser cutters and CNC machines.

Here is an instructional outline for MAKING in the classroom.

PROBLEM/CHALLENGE: Students want to solve a problem, fill a need or answer a question.

DESIGN: Students design, brainstorm, sketch, hypothesize a solution to the problem. It is critical that each student record the results of this process. The DESIGN may be a drawing on a 3″x5″ card, an entry in a maker journal, a sketch on an iPad or a full design in a CAD program. This is the idea phase. This is the stage where student work can be stored as bits in memory.

MAKE: Students make, build, experiment, fabricate their design. Review and revision are an integral part of this step. The original design will be modified based on the limits of the tools, materials and skills of the student. What is important is that the student are working from their original design and not just starting from scratch with tools in hand. This is the stage where bits are turned into atoms.

SHARE: Students share, market, publish, teach what they have designed and made. Blogs, websites, class share fairs and Thingiverse.com are great places to SHARE. The SHARE step can include a summary of the problem, the design, the solution that they made and how it differs from their original design and a reflection of how the work relates to the class curriculum. Be sure that students SHARE the solutions that didn't work. This is the stage where the bits and atoms are turned into waves that ripple out and impact others.

The purpose of this blog is to explore MAKING in the classroom and expand on the idea of Design Make Share by teaching others.

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Design Make Share: An Outline for MAKING in the Classroom

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Ready to dive into 3D printing in the classroom? Your students and colleagues will be energized by having access to the latest technology. But be careful, if you just start printing without a clear instructional plan in place, your 3D printer could become just a toy factory.

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Template

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Video & Instructions

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Today's paper toy, Flextangles, is seriously the coolest paper puzzle we have ever made and judging by how many times you guys have downloaded our template you agree! Flextangles are part of our collaborative series STEAM POWER: Empowering kids to explore the world through creative projects. The theme for this installment is COMPUTE!

I've been itching to try making a flexagon ever since my friend Erica introduced me to them, so I decided it was high time we made one. If you aren't familiar with flexagons scroll down to find out more. I also decided to incorporate drawing into the project to add a level of manual "computation." Decorating these and then seeing how the patterns and colors translate once folded is a wonderful exercise in geometric planning.
This post contains affiliate links to products I love and recommend to my readers.

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Materials

Instructions

Step One Download and print the template

Step Two Draw different designs in each row of triangular sides. Refer to the Pattern Guide on our template for the row layout. Be sure to connect the designs at the tick marks.

Step Three Cut along bold line.

Step Four Crease dashed lines face to face. Unfold.

Step Five Crease diagonal lines back to back. Unfold.

Step Six Gently fold paper to match dot to dot and form a tube.

Step Seven Add glue on tabs marked GLUE and press together.

Step Eight Add glue on end tabs and tuck into open end of tube. Press to seal. Let dry.

You're done! Go play!

Troubleshooting

A few people have written to me to express some challenges with this project. Here are my suggestions for troubleshooting.

If you find the end tabs keep popping out, add a small piece of tape on both sides of the joint.

Use tacky glue and be sure it is dry before rotating your Flextangle! The glued joints are under stress so they need to be secure.

Be sure to prime the Flextangle by rotating it slowly and popping out any unwanted bumps. The paper needs to flex a few times slowly before it rotates easily.

Make sure the folds are creased well. I burnish the fold with the back of my thumb. When using card stock you may want to burnish the folds using your fingernail.

Tips

Prime your flexagon by rotating it gently at first and pushing out any unwanted folds. Once it's been rotated a few times it will loosen up.

Standard printer paper makes the easiest to fold flexagons but they are not the most durable. Cardstock makes for more durable flexagons but you will need to really crease the fold lines or the model will be stiff.

Younger children don't have to pay attention to the tick marks, they will just enjoy coloring the template like my daughter did!

About Flexagons and Zentangle

Flexagons are paper models that can be flexed to reveal hidden faces. They were originally created by Princeton graduate student Arthur Stone in 1939 and became a huge fad when Martin Gardner published them in The Scientific American years later. There are an incredible number of flexagon types. To try some other versions go here.

The model we have made here today is nicknamed a Kaleidocyle and because it's not flat I'm not entirely sure it can be classified as a flexagon, but it certainly is loads of fun!

Zentangle is a trademarked method of drawing patterns in a deliberate, meditative manner. Zentangle is based on a square so our Flextangles are really only inspired by this method and not a true example of this drawing technique. If you want to now more about drawing Zentangle hop over and check out their site!

Looks Like

Martin Gardner. Martin Gardner was an author who wrote a column for The Scientific American. His first article for the magazine was about Flexagons and was published in 1956. It was a huge hit and the magazine asked him to write an ongoing column called Mathematical Games, which he continued until 1981. Besides being a columnist and author he was an expert on Lewis Carroll and held some strong beliefs about pseudoscience and more. You can read all about his ideas here
If FLEXTANGLES gets you hooked on paper toys, we've got more......
Check out our PAPER TOYS PLAY PACK HERE

More from the STEAM Series:

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Today's paper toy, Flextangles, is seriously the coolest paper puzzle we have ever made and judging by how many times you guys have downloaded our template you agree! Flextangles are part of our collaborative series STEAM POWER: Empowering kids to explore the world through creative projects. The theme for this installment is COMPUTE!

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template

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Engineering Design Process Worksheet & Activity

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Engineering Design Process Worksheet & Activity

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From The Works