Engineering Task

I want to get out of here in 10 minutes, so this will be quick. I wanted to share how much fun I had in class on Friday.

I'm sure you've all heard about Common Core, and how states across the country are pushing our kids even harder (and sometimes *gasp* pushing teachers as well). Science has something similar, called Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Since science gets less attention, New Jersey hasn't implemented these standards or written a test for them, but there is a link to them on the state website, so at least that's something.

One of the new parts of the NGSS is a focus on engineering and applied science. The thinking is that if students are exposed to applied sciences now, they will be more likely to enter the super lucrative STEM fields. I'm okay with that.

So, we had our first engineering task on Friday. Students were given a bin of Legos and the following challenge: Create a structure for your teacher's desk that can hold 10 pens or pencils.

Students drew prototypes, built structures, tested them, and rebuilt. Some tested and rebuilt a few other times.

The best part was that these overambitious, overachieving kids do NOT play well with others. There were groups of four that had completely fractured into separate projects. There were groups that couldn't agree on a design in a reasonable time. There were groups fighting, and solving problems, and being creative, and sharing, and debating. It was awesome. I saw a few heads explode.  The best part is that kids were failing and trying again, and helping each other, and creating things.

Most importantly, kids walked out of class with a new appreciation for the design process that goes into creating some of the more complicated technology that they use on a daily basis. Some kids walked out of class with a new appreciation for the difficulty of working on a team.

I will never be an engineer. I hope that students got a taste of what engineering is like, and that some of them will grow up to design technologies that we can't even imagine. And I hope some of them don't like design and instead choose to pursue plain old theoretical science.