Engineering is Elementary Piedmont Triad Education Consortium Heidi Carlone, hbcarlon@uncg.edu Melony Allen, mhallen@uncg.edu HBC

Goals & Introductions Invisible Helmets HBC

What is Technology? MHA

What comes to mind when you hear the word “technology”?

Technology in a Bag What is the technology? What does your technology do? What problem does it solve? How else could you use it? What material(s) is it made of? What other materials could it be made of?

Our definition of technology:

EiE defines technology as: Anything human-made that is used to solve a problem or fulfill a desire. Technology can be an object, a system, or a process.

What is Engineering? HBC

What is the problem? What do you need to know before you start?

Using verbs, describe what you did during the design process.

The Engineering Design Process Brainstorming No evaluation Criteria Constraints Science knowledge Imagine Ask The Goal To solve a problem by developing or improving a technology. Plan Improve Create and test

Break!

Engineering at work! MHA

Engineers… build buildings INTRODUCTION TO EIE and EDP-- SHARED

build bridges and roads. Engineers… build bridges and roads.

fix cars, engines, and machines. Engineers… fix cars, engines, and machines.

Engineers… use or fix computers.

Engineers… drive trains!

Curriculum Development ProcessStandards-Based, Research-Driven, Classroom-Tested It took about 3,000 hours to develop a unit that is 8 to 10 hours of classroom time. Initial Unit Development Regional Pilot Testing (MA) Unit Revisions National Field Testing (CA,CO, MA, MN, NC) Unit Revisions Final Unit Released

Why Elementary Engineering? Why EiE? Technological literacy is a basic 21st century literacy. Engineering makes math and science relevant and integrates other disciplines. Engineering practices build and reinforce 21st century skills. EiE increases students’ awareness of and access to engineering and science careers EiE is consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards

Engineering is Elementary Lessons that integrate engineering and technology concepts into elementary science Goal 1. Increase children’s technological literacy. Goal 2. Increase elementary educators’ abilities to teach engineering and technology to their students. Goal 3. Increase the number of schools in the U.S. that include engineering at the elementary level. Goal 4. Conduct research and assessment about engineering teaching and learning at the elementary level. Can we dump this slide?

EiE Unit Structure Lesson 1: Engineering Story Prep Lesson: Technology in a Bag Lesson 1: Engineering Story

EiE Storybooks The primary focus in US elementary schools is reading. Teachers have a lot of time for reading and usually very little for science. Elementary teachers are also much more comfortable with reading than science. So start with what they are comfortable with and “borrow” reading minutes (you have to read about something). Books have a child character from some country in the world who confronts a challenge. Just happens to have an adult engineer in his/her life (parent, neighbor, relative) Mentor introduces them to a problem-solving strategy, engineering design process that engineers use to work through a problem. Child applies it and voila! The challenge in the book is the same one the children will do in their classes. The books set the context for why we would care about an engineering challenge.

Lesson 1: Engineering Storybook

EiE Unit Structure Lesson 2: A Broader View of an Engineering Field Prep Lesson: Technology in a Bag Lesson 1: Engineering Story Lesson 2: A Broader View of an Engineering Field

Lesson 2: A Broader View of an Engineering Field

EiE Unit Structure Lesson 3: Scientific Data Inform Engineering Design Prep Lesson: Technology in a Bag Lesson 1: Engineering Story Lesson 2: A Broader View of an Engineering Field Lesson 3: Scientific Data Inform Engineering Design

Lesson 3: Science Connection Activate prior scientific knowledge Test and gather data about: Materials and their properties Efficacy of materials for a particular purpose Gain understanding about: Related scientific phenomena Conducting tests, making predictions, drawing conclusions

EiE Unit Structure Lesson 4: Engineering Design Challenge Prep Lesson: Technology in a Bag Lesson 1: Engineering Story Lesson 2: A Broader View of an Engineering Field Lesson 3: Scientific Data Inform Engineering Design Lesson 4: Engineering Design Challenge

Lesson 4: Design Challenge Guiding Question: How can we use what we know about materials and their properties, our creativity, and the Engineering Design Process to design and improve a technology?

21st Century Skill Building Critical Thinking Collaboration Communication Creativity

Engineering Practices Problem Solving Analysis and data- driven decisions Variables and optimization

What do teachers and students have to say about EiE? Video

Educator Resources Content Connections Supporting Documents Mathematics Science Language Arts Fine Arts Educator Resources Social Studies Content Connections Supporting Documents Multimedia Resources Student Assessments Lesson plans that connect EiE units to other subject areas How-To Videos Storybook Illustration PDF Files General Engineering, Technology, and EDP Assessments (multiple choice & open-ended) Classroom Videos (by unit) Family Letter Spanish Translations Mathematics Science High-Resolution EDP Image Language Arts Unit-Specific Assessments (multiple choice & open-ended) Fine Arts Research and Evaluation Resources Social Studies

Agricultural Engineering: Designing Hand Pollinators The Best of Bugs Agricultural Engineering: Designing Hand Pollinators

The Student Hat and The Teacher Hat

VOCABULARY Insect - a small animal with 3 body parts and 3 pairs of legs Metamorphosis - transformation from egg to larva to pupa to adult butterfly

Pesticide - a chemical used to control insects Pollination - the transfer of pollen from the male part of a flower to the female part that results in the growth of new seeds

Hand Pollinator - a tool that humans use to pollinate a plant if the plant’s natural pollinator is absent Nectar - a sweet liquid inside some flowers and plants that attracts insects Agricultural Engineer - a person who uses his or her knowledge of biology and living systems to design solutions to problems

Mariana is a girl...  

...who lives in the Dominican Republic.   

She loves her garden and spends many hours there taking care of her plants. But one plant isn’t doing well— her ohelo (pronounced o-HAY-low) berry plant. Her friend Pablo brought the ohelo from Hawaii for her (of course, obtaining special permission and quarantining the plant beforehand). It used to have flowers and red berries, but not anymore. It still has flowers, but no berries.   

Mariana doesn’t know why this is, so her father suggests that she ask her Tía (aunt) Leti who is an agricultural engineer. Mariana visits her aunt and explains the problem. “Tía Leti, I’ve been taking extra special care of my ohelo plant, but it will not produce berries.”   

Tía Leti asks Mariana if she knows how plants make seeds Tía Leti asks Mariana if she knows how plants make seeds. Mariana does and explains the process of pollination to her aunt. Tía Leti explains that there are seeds inside of berries—this causes Mariana to wonder and “Ask” if her plant is being pollinated.  

Mariana decides to test this hypothesis by observing her ohelo plant to see if there are any insects visiting it and, indirectly, pollinating it. Her aunt gives her a journal with which to collect her data and…  

…Mariana gets to work.  

For weeks, she watches butterflies and other insects visit the plants in the garden.  

Mariana soon realizes that not a single insect is visiting her ohelo plant.  

When she tells her aunt about what she observed, this leads to a discussion about why insects visit flowers and the benefits of this behavior to both the insect (food) and the plant (pollination).  

When Mariana realizes that there is nectar in her ohelo plant, she asks, “Why won’t the insects come to eat it?” Her Tía Leti then responds with this analogy, “imagine that you came over to my house for dinner, and on the table I laid out some food. But I put all the food in the very center of the table where you couldn’t reach it. Do you think you would have a very good dinner?”  

So with that thought, Mariana starts to think up solutions for her ohelo plant and wonders if she might bring in an insect from Hawaii to pollinate her plant.  

To think through her solution, Mariana decides to go visit her aunt at work.  

While Mariana is there, she learns about invasive species…  

…pesticides, and Integrated Pest Management.  

Mariana decides that she might have a better solution to her problem—pollinating the plant herself rather than introducing an invasive species.  

Tía Leti shows Mariana a technology that she uses in her work—a hand pollinator.  

Tía Leti then tells Mariana about the Engineering Design Process and how it will help her create her hand pollinator. By asking more questions, imagining, planning…  

…creating and testing, and improving, Mariana creates a successful hand pollinator. NOTE: The storybook is purposefully vague about Mariana’s successful design because we do not want students to believe that Mariana’s solution is the only solution.  

And sure enough, her ohelo plant produces berries.  

The end.  

Lesson 1: Important Points The Storybook: • introduces field of engineering. • makes science content relevant through the context of the engineering design challenge. • introduces science and engineering vocabulary. • introduces the Engineering Design Process. • inspires students to do the engineering design challenge. • is purposefully vague about the child’s solution.

Teacher Hat: Lesson 1 Lesson takes 2-3 sessions of about 30-45 minutes Reading / ELA minutes

Lesson 2:Who Are Agricultural Engineers? Guiding Question: How do agricultural engineers use Integrated Pest management to help farmers?

Problem Solution Winter Apple Tree Spring Apple Tree Summer Apple Tree Fall Apple Tree

The Play’s Characters

Spring Narrator 1: It’s springtime, Farmer Anne’s favorite time. She takes a walk around the farm. She isn’t gone long before she comes running back to the house. Farmer Anne: Farmer Bob! I see lots of green caterpillars! They are munching the pretty pink blossoms on our apple trees. Farmer Bob: Oh, no! We can’t let the caterpillars eat the blossoms! If we don’t stop those caterpillars, we’ll have no apples. Fruit Tree Leaf Roller: I am a fat, green caterpillar. We stay in our eggs all winter long. When it is springtime we wake up hungry for apple blossoms. Yum!

Farmer Anne: What should we do? Farmer Bob: We don’t want to spray pesticides again. (Farmer Anne and Farmer shake their heads, “No.”) Chorus: (sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat): Bugs, bugs, bugs invade Our apple crop they munch! An agricultural engineer Saves apples for our lunch! Agricultural Engineer 1: Let’s try Integrated Pest Management. We can bring some lady beetle larvae in to eat the caterpillars in your orchard. Farmer Bob and Farmer Anne: Yay! We’re saved!

Which is the problem? Which are the solutions?

Problem Solution Winter Apple Tree Spring Apple Tree Summer Apple Tree Fall Apple Tree

Summer Narrator 2: It’s summertime. Lots of honeybees and other insects are visiting the apple trees. The insects pollinate the flowers. Farmer Bob and Farmer Anne are happy. At the end of the summer, tiny apples start to grow. Farmer Bob and Farmer Anne go for a walk in their orchard. Farmer Bob: Oh no! Some of the apples are sick and brown. What’s that bug? Weevil: I am a weevil. At night, I climb up the tree trunk for a tasty meal. These apples are yummy!

Chorus: (sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat): Bugs, bugs, bugs invade Our apple crop they munch! An agricultural engineer Saves apples for our lunch! Agricultural Engineer 2: Let’s try Integrated Pest Management. We can paint glue around the tree trunk. The weevils will get stuck in the glue. Then they will not be able to climb the tree. Farmer Bob and Farmer Anne: We’re saved!

Which is the problem? Which are the solutions?

Problem Solution Winter Apple Tree Spring Apple Tree Summer Apple Tree Fall Apple Tree

Return to the Guiding Question: How do agricultural engineers use Integrated Pest Management to help farmers?

Reflection: What were the technologies that the agricultural engineers used to solve the farmer’s problems? What kind of biological knowledge did the agricultural engineers need to know in order to implement IPM? Is Integrated Pest Management a technology? Why or why not?

Teacher Hat: Lesson 2 Advanced vs. Basic versions of the play Connect to local agriculture

Lunch Break...

Lesson 3:Exploring Pollination Materials Guiding Question: What materials and properties of materials work best for picking up and dropping off pollen? Remind about pollination… Pollination is the process plants use to transfer pollen from the stamen (male) part of the flower to the pistil (female part) of another flower of the same species to produce seeds. - Accomplished with wind, insects, birds, or sometimes self-pollinating. - We’re focusing on bees/butterflies role in the ecosystem….

Materials and Their Properties Object Material Properties

Make a Prediction: What do you think will be good qualities or properties of a material used to make a hand pollinator? Why do you think so?

How will we know which materials will work best?

Pollen Nectar

Evaluating Pollination Materials Pick up? Drop off? How much? marble tape eraser foil pompom pipe cleaner

Return to the Guiding Question: What materials and properties of materials work best for picking up and dropping off pollen?

Reflection: Which two materials deposited the MOST pollen? Which two materials deposited the LEAST pollen? Which did some pairs have different results than others? What can we do if this happens in the classroom? Based on your data, which materials do you think will be the best choice for your hand pollinator design?

Teacher Hat: Lesson 3 Importance of materials analysis for students Allowing students to discuss testing methodology Connections to mathematics and science MHA

Lesson 4:Designing a Hand Pollinator Guiding Question: How can we use our knowledge of pollination, materials and their properties, and the Engineering Design Process to design and improve a hand pollinator for a model flower? HBC

Ask

Imagine

Plan

Create

Improve

Return to the Guiding Question: How can we use our knowledge of pollination, materials and their properties, and the Engineering Design Process to design and improve a hand pollinator for a model flower?

Reflection: Describe your original hand pollinator design. What materials did you choose? Why? Was your first design successful? How do you know? How did you decide to improve your hand pollinator? Were your improvements successful? How do you know? If you redesigned your hand pollinator to work with another flower, what did you do? There should always be a colon after the titles “Reflection”, “Directions,” or “Goal”

Teacher Hat: Lesson 4 Encourage students to connect to Lesson 3 data when choosing materials for their designs. Students often struggle with the “Imagine” and “Plan” steps of the EDP and might need some extra support. Importance of the “Improve” step of the EDP.

NC Essential Standards... EiE Units Aligned with NC 4th & 5th Grades HBC