Thank you for the comments. It is a fun project and I do understand the growth of knowledge concern with using sophisticated tools. We chose to use a segmented approach that incorporates a stepped procedure to their understanding of the tools. 6th grade we work with drawing and visualization only, 7th grade we then introduce the modeling software and have them work through the model with deliberate steps to acquire the knowledge and finally in 8th grade we have a small suite of video tutorials as refreshers that cover all of the basic functions they would need to design in the software.

Thanks for the reply! The segmented approach makes a lot of sense. Did you find it worked well for the students? Would you make any changes to it if you were doing it again? Also have you written about it anywhere? Could be useful for others working with complicated tools! Thanks!

Hi Amie! We are receiving great feedback from our teachers featured in the video in terms of student engagement and understanding. These two teachers, featured in the video, have helped us hone the curriculum a great deal as we expand into our next two middle schools in the 2015-2016 school year. At the moment, Jeff and Roxanne have presented the curriculum at the ITEEA conference, with papers to follow. Our research team is hard at work developing instruments concerning student understanding of the engineering design process, so we will certainly release our work on that front. We are redesigning our website now, though it’s not live just yet, to share all our papers and presentations which will link over from ceismc.gatech.edu soon.

I am curious how much PD and training do you envision a teacher would need to run this with his/her class?

Good question, Beth. Certainly we’ve done a fair bit of PD with the teachers in the video (5 days in the summers and a couple additional sessions during the school year) and we also provide ongoing support. But really, I think the answer is that it depends on the teacher and their background. We’ve been updating our curriculum materials to make sure they’re clear, and we’re piloting at two more middle schools this fall. That way we should get a better sense of what it takes now that the curriculum is more complete. On the up side, both of the teachers in the video were very new to teaching when we started working with them, and they’ve done awesome!

Hi Beth! Thanks for your question. At each grade level the students are presented with a challenge that frames their exploration. At the sixth grade level, for example, students explore the engineering design process and entrepreneurial thinking in the context of a carnival. The course begins with students making a sales pitch for a new carnival food stand based on market research. Students then run experiments using a pneumatic catapult as they work to design a new carnival game board with appropriate odds of winning. Then, after some skills development in engineering drawing, they re-design the catapult cradle to change the performance characteristics of their carnival game. Students typically work through the challenges in pairs. We have found that as partners the students take a great deal of ownership over their projects at each grade level. Each team comes up unique solutions to the problem since we frame the challenge in a “market” context, explaining to the students that they don’t want to saturate the market with similar food stands or carnival games. Students are typically informed of design requirements and constrains as the challenge is framed, so unexpected or “surprise” materials are not thrown into the design phase. Students are engaging with materials that might be unexpected at the middle school level, however, from CAD software and LEGO robotics, to the pneumatic catapults.

On the entrepreneurship side, we also use some Shark Tank videos to motivate the challenges. In addition, we have the students calculate profit based on their anticipated revenues and expenses. We walk them through the calculations using google spreadsheets. In that way, the students have to think a little more broadly about stakeholders and where costs are incurred when running a business.

Hi Tammy! The course is an ‘elective’ in that it is not a curricular requirement, but students are generally assigned to the course (without much choice) at the middle school level.