Engineering Gr. 3/4

Delightful grade 3 and 4 students came to the Engineering program.  What a great group of thinkers, builders, problem solvers, and designers.  

I liked how they approached problems.

 Building newspaper chairs was quite the ordeal....I think there was more tape used than newspapers!

 Original structures were built...

 I love this design with the elevator on the outside!

 This lovely playground with a pond!

Of course, using triangles to make strong designs is the key to it all...

Thank you grade 3 and 4 students....you were all very special and terrific to work with....always think about "How Engineering Can Make the World a Better Place!"

Resources for Teaching Engineering

Teachers always need resources....in putting together the unit on engineering, I had to look far and wide to find information and resources. Here are a few places to start to get some great information:


1.  This is a great site for getting girls involved in engineering:
  www.teachingengineering.org


2.  This is a great place to get lesson plans for teaching; there is lots of info so you need time to sort through:
   www.teachengineering.org

3.  This is a great site created by PBS...there are activities students can do online and there is lots of information:

PBS Building Big

4.  National Academy of Engineering has wonderful information and in particular, I began the unit of study looking at the "great engineering achievements" which was a good introduction for the students:

www.engineeringchallenges.org


5.  I wanted to link the learning we did in the program with the bigger world, so I found some great Youtube videos entitled: How can science save the world?  This was a contest whereby students had to submit video entries how science can make the world a better place.  Periodically, throughout the program, I showed the students.  It was fantastic to see work created by students!  Just go to the jump and click on any of the video submissions.

If you have any resources or ideas, please let me know.  I am working with grade 3/4 students on the same unit in a few weeks, so I am looking for materials that are more age appropriate for the younger age group.

Final Engineering Projects

Don't you just love it....students at work...sharing ideas and projects..the best learning ever!!

 Loved this final project....makes me want to go to Paris and show my own kids this fantastic structure!!!

 For the final project, the students were given the following criteria:  Design and build a strong, sturdy original structure that serves a particular purpose, and meets these criteria and specifications:

• your structure must be a stationary building that serves a useful purpose
• the structure may serve either a practical or a fanciful function ( for example, it may be the eighth great wonder of the world or an underwater house that can be lived in year round)
• your structure must be freestanding

When you are finished building you must present your structure to the class.  You must:

• name your structure and explain its purpose
• explain how you dealt with areas of tension and compression
• show evidence of a least 3 engineering techniques
• proved reasons for your choice of materials
• tell ow your estimate of "needed materials" compares with the amount of materials actually used.

Whew!  The students had all morning to build their structures, and presented them in the afternoon.

We used materials that I could round up in class, and if students wanted to bring in other materials, they were allowed to do so.  I provided the glue guns, although only a few students wanted to use them (I allowed them to use the glue guns only under supervision and if they were familiar with them; otherwise I wouldn't let kids use them....they can easily burn themselves).

 I provided the following materials:  

• skewers (be careful with these so that the students do not make weapons with them....most of the students were okay with this but sometimes you get that student who is a weapon fanatic and wants to make something dangerous)
• straws, popsicle sticks, cardboard, boxes, foam core, styrofoam
• glue:  white glue and paste
• all types of tape:  masking, electrical, duct tape, scotch tape
• coloured paper of all sorts and textured paper
• tin foil, saran wrap, plastic baggies, coloured tissue paper and clear paper
• playing cards, poster board, modelling clay, pipe-cleaners
• boxes

Below this student created a stadium...

Here we have about three projects put together...a tower with a bridge, a robot car, 

Here's a house with a retractable roof....

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All were original and creative....thank you Engineering students!  You did a great job and you should be proud of your efforts!

More Engineering

Here we had the students build towers using spaghetti and marshmallows...it was really difficult; this team used gum drops to hold the pieces together which was far more successful; the marshmallows work well when working with toothpicks, but with spaghetti (the longer lengths) they did not hold together so well.

 I got this group to use straws in this challenge to see if it worked any better ...
sort of!

And onto the newspaper challenge....build a chair using newspaper and tape; the chair must be able to hold the weight of a student!

Many different designs were discussed...

This group got the idea of the triangle to strengthen their chair...

 Like the design of this one...think it will hold up?

 As I mentioned before...the room was a disaster after each day...one needs to build in a great clean up plan before beginning to unleash the engineers in the classroom!