Engineering Design

The last day for students is May 27. Just about 3 weeks of regular instruction and 1 week of what we call Pirate Term. Pirate Term is an opportunity for the high school students and teachers to do a 5-day intensive course on something outside of the usual learning experience. This year our offerings are:

- Scuba Diving

- Entrepreneur

- Military/Mini-Boot Camp

- Healthy Lifestyles

- Art Camp

- Pirate Kitchen

- Monster Garage

- Pirate Pickers

Very exciting stuff - I kind of wish I could do some of those! However, the middle school has a modified version where the students rotate through the core classes. I'm going to do a CSI:Hudson with my 7th and 8th graders. More on that in a different post. =)

For the final few weeks of instruction chemistry students will prepare a science fair presentation for an elementary grade, 8th grade will finish up astronomy and in 7th grade, I am going to focus on the NGSS Engineering Design standards.

"In the K–12 context . . . . We use the term “engineering” in a very broad sense to mean any engagement in a systematic practice of design to achieve solutions to particular human problems. Likewise, we broadly use the term “technology” to include all types of human-made systems and processes—not in the limited sense often used in schools that equates technology with modern computational and communications devices. Technologies result when engineers apply their understanding of the natural world and of human behavior to design ways to satisfy human needs and wants. (NRC 2012, p. 11-12)"

Ideally, I should include these throughout the year (which is my intention in the coming years of NGSS implementation) but for this year, I think it will work for students to work through it all at once. I will present students with a variety of scenarios and challenges that will ask them to define the problem, identify multiply solutions, investigate the most acceptable solutions and optimize their choices. I think it'll be fun.

#NGSS