House of Cards Amy S., Amy T., Katie M., Justine H. S.T.E.M. Challenge

Real life application… What do you think would happen to our school if an earthquake took place today? Earthquakes and natural events occur everyday in our world. It’s important for students to understand how we can try to prepare for these events through buildings. Activating students prior knowledge. Recognizing students preconceptions. Teacher should guide students to consider different types of structures in the community such as a hospital, school building, house, etc. This informally introduces to concept of structures and discuss certain elements they may contain in their structures (square base, pillars, etc.).

Image allows students to see a visual of what could happen to a building before and after an earthquake. Visual can help aid ESOL students, special ed students

Engineering Design Process… 1. Define the problem 5. Present the results 2. Generate ideas Express to the students that today they will partake in the engineering design process by creating a structure that will withstand a mock earthquake. Emphasize “the testing their solution and refining their solutions” section to allow students to self assess and have the opportunity to make changes to their design. We would also allow students time to present their design at the end of the simulation. Core Idea ETS1: Engineering Design 4. Test and refine solutions 3. Develop solutions

The challenge… Today’s challenge is to construct a strong building out of tape and index cards To pass the building inspection, the structure has to withstand a mock earthquake ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting an Engineering Problem

Criteria for Success What would make your building successful and able to pass inspection? 1. 2. 3. 4. Students will work together to determine criteria that their buildings should meet. Guide students to be specific about expectations. For example, teacher should guide students to define specific time duration of earthquake, what qualifies if their building does pass inspection (doesn’t fall over? Doesn’t fall off of their desk?), etc. Students will also have to decide if moving a desk is enough to simulate an earthquake. This allows students to come up with their criteria for success so that they can keep these things in mind when designing their structure and allows students to self monitor.

Materials… Variety of paper Variety of tape Cardstock Printer paper Cardboard Sandpaper Variety of tape Masking tape Electrical tape Scotch tape Duct tape Students determine what materials their group wants to use. All paper will be the size of a 3 by 5 index card. Students will be limited to 50 pieces of paper each. Tape is not limited and students will take what they need. We wanted to offer a variety of similar materials to see if students will use their properties to their advantage (double up cards, use lots of tape, build a wide structure, etc.), helps create a fair constraint for everyone but doesn’t define exact structure elements they need to use (limitations).

Get ready to design and build… Independently: brainstorm ideas Group: list materials and create a blueprint GOALS… Students will individually brainstorm ideas. They will bring these ideas to their group to collectively decide upon a blueprint model and list materials. Students will then create the goals as an entire class from the criteria for success slide. ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution

Did our group… Share our independent designs to the group? Create a list of materials? Collaboratively design a blue print of our structure? Test our structure? Re-design and re-work our structure when a problem arose? Assign speaking opportunities for each group member for our presentation? [Class Criteria] This checklist is created to promote self-regulation, self-assessment metacognition, accountability, collaboration opportunity, and emphasize the redesign/ modify aspects of the engineering process. This checklist will be up on the board while groups work on their structure. As they complete each step, they can then go up to the board and check off the box that they have completed. If a promethean or smart board is not available, students can use colored sticky notes and post them on whatever surface the presentation is being projected on. Because the class is creating criteria, there may be some additional criteria that they will need to monitor as they are working in groups. This is why there are three rows that say “class criteria.”

Reflection Questions What were the strengths and weaknesses of your design? How well did your group succeed at the class goals? Why? What would you change if you could do the challenge again? This open-ended reflection question is meant to give the students a chance to evaluate their own thinking throughout the process and reflect on their learning.

How can we apply what we learned from this challenge to a S. T. E. M How can we apply what we learned from this challenge to a S.T.E.M. career? Core Idea ETS2: Links Among Engineering, Technology, Science, and Society

Cool Science Jobs… Architectural Engineer- An architect decides on the form and appearance of a building, but it’s the architectural engineer who makes sure everything inside it works. They can give a skyscraper a fast elevator, soundproof a concert hall, and solar energy panels for a green school. Engineering Geologist- Before a building is built, engineering geologists study the rocks and soil beneath it, making sure it has a stable foundation. They also evaluate whether buildings, bridges, and roads face dangers like landslides, earthquakes, and flooding.