Implementing the Engineering Design Process
May 6, 2024
Writing Good STEM Test Questions
May 6, 2024
KEY POINTS
- Identify and apply STEM solutions to community problems
- Host discussions with your students
- Use the Engineering Design Process as a guide
By their nature, the STEM subjects are often focused on solving real-world problems. For this reason, it’s important for students to develop those vital problem-solving skills in the modern STEM classroom. While this can certainly be achieved via math problems or questions pulled from a textbook, looking for solutions to problems in your own community can often be the best way to incorporate problem-solving content into your STEM classroom.
THINK ABOUT THE COMMUNITY THROUGH A STEM LENS
Every community has problems that need to be solved. Start by attending a town or school board meeting and listen to the concerns that people address. In each case, consider how STEM might be used to solve that problem and how that problem could be applied in your STEM classroom. Introduce a community problem to your students and give them the opportunity to brainstorm how STEM concepts could be used to address it. As another approach, instruct your students to read their local newspaper and search for community issues that could be addressed with STEM. Having them write down their thoughts and presenting to the rest of the class could be an excellent launching point for a class project.
LOOK TO YOUR STUDENTS
Start a group discussion and ask your students what problems they have seen, heard about, or read about in your community. Write down a list of what students report and then narrow down the choices until you have identified a community problem that is of interest to your class. Next, narrow the scope of the project to something that is manageable for both you and your students. Then, split your students into groups and give them time to develop and implement their own original solution to the community problem.
IMPLEMENT THE ENGINEERING DESIGN PROCESS
Use the steps of the Engineering Design Process to guide your students toward a STEM-oriented solution. First, engage with your students and clearly define the problem that you are trying to solve. Next, instruct your students to research the problem to develop a base of knowledge that will help in later stages. Then, brainstorm with your students regarding how to best approach this problem. Follow up by directing student groups to develop a series of prototypes capable of solving their problem. Finally, give student groups time to test their prototypes, evaluate their solutions, and revisit the steps of the Engineering Design Process as needed until a final solution has been reached.
