Elementary Engineering: From Simple Machines to Life Skills (Transcript)

Student: Well, that juice is–

Jeff: Slide that level down here. Let’s just double-check what we did. We’re looking to see if the bubble is between the lines.

Students: It is!

Jeff: Nice work, people.

Barbara: They are asking the questions. They are doing the research. It is about that hands-on learning, and it allows teachers to be able to make it all real.

Courtney: I don’t like that word, “Can’t.”

Courtney: We are starting a process of really going down the STEAM road of understanding how arts can be integrated with science, technology, engineering and math. We push the students to see the connections. We inspire them with real-world opportunities to make those connections.

Teacher: What angle do we need to put it?

Barbara: Engineering helps them to critically think and problem solve. Ms. Bryant teaches those concepts through art design. Which is perfect for young children.

Courtney: There isn’t really a state-wide curriculum for elementary school, engineering design. But looking at where they need to be in middle school and then high school, I’m able to backwards design for the elementary level.

Courtney: Then once this dries, we’ll flip it and get the sides.

Jeff: Here in the engineering lab, we do design-and-build projects that involve students, surprisingly young. You wouldn’t think that first and second graders could do perspective rendering and design concepts, but they’re doing it!

Jaron: Well, we’re making things for the Tinker Yard. And we’re kind of making a house like right here.

Louis: We’re building it so people can think of energy when they see it, and then people want to go in here.

Girl: To play.

Louis: It’s like another playground.

Courtney: The Tinker Yard happens to be four stations that they’ve come up with. The first station is a Building Station.

Jeff: Kids love to build forts, so we just give them an eclectic amount of materials that they can fasten together and make structures. And those structures constantly change and shift as they take them apart, put them back together in different ways.

Courtney: The last station is the Energy Station. That’s the piece that we’re working on now.

Jeff: And it’s a raised platform that will allow us to mount different kinds of simple machines that the kids can operate.

Courtney: I’m going to start adding to our drawing. We can add parts from the bicycle. We can also add parts from our wagon. So Terrance, what should I add?

Terrance: Get a chain and attach it to the little gear he made and make it roll.

Jeff: It’s starting to happen.

Courtney: One of the things that’s neat about doing a project like this is it provides an entry point. And then a real world application. So we’re doing research about what possible simple machines they could use.

Courtney: This is a simple machine called–

Student: Plane, incline plane.

Courtney: Incline plane, very good!

Courtney: The next thing we’re talking about is idea development, where they’re generating sketches to show off their idea. It’s one thing for someone to be able to talk about an idea, but to actually put it on paper makes it a lot more concrete for a student.

Aeris: When you pull the gear, the wheel spins.

Courtney: So the next step is to synthesize designs. Students sharing and drawing on each other’s work.

Courtney: She added a wheel, and she added some shapes with a spring here.

Aeris: Brian, do you want to work on mine?

Courtney: And then we’ll start to piece it together. It is design-by-committee, but the committees are second-grade students. The fourth graders are working on a Dream Cars Project-Based Learning Unit. They’re learning about composition and materials and use. Their project is going to be to create a dream car and design it for a particular customer.

Courtney: Before we draw our vanishing points, you’re right, what do we need? Horizon line!

Students: Ooooh!

Courtney: They’re at the phase now of starting the sketching process.

Courtney: One of the ways you communicate is through your drawing. This is not a drawing class, but I want you to see that it is important to learn how to do it, and do it well, so that you can show off your idea. A monster truck, you decide–

Courtney: The next step after that would be actually modeling it in 3D. And they’re gonna see how it’s a lot easier to model it out of clay, if you have the sketch onboard.

Courtney: Most people don’t learn two-point perspective until they’re much older. I didn’t learn it until high school. But I must have a lot of confidence in you. I know that you guys have got this.

Courtney: Rubrics are a big part of the assessment strategy for engineering design. When you’re talking about a design process, the first thing that you’re given is a brief. This is what your boss– that would be me– is looking for at the end of the project.

Courtney: Look on your rubric now, and tell me what does Kaleigh earn based on that. A 100, which is the equivalent to a check-plus.

Courtney: The students will evaluate themselves at the end to see whether they met the goals.

Jeff: Problem solving through design. A lot of students, that’s how they learn. That kinesthetic-spatial-tactile kind of knowing. They get to come in here and that’s part of how they understand what’s going on in engineering.

Courtney: The value of brainstorming, and not just rushing without thinking all the aspects through, having success after many failures, so persistence.

Jeff: Get it in there, and then pull the trigger again. There we go!

Courtney: That type of real world experience they’re going to carry that with them for the rest of their life.

Schools That Work

Charles R. Drew Charter School