Teaching Students About the Engineering Design Process

1. Teaching Students About the Engineering Design Process

2. 1. Encourage teamwork • Since students and engineers design in teams, this is a critical component.

3. 2. Develop or encourage projects that are about people and making life better • Clean water • Green energy • Low-carbon transportation alternatives • Advances in medicine

4. 3. Celebrate science and engineering • Focus on current events in which engineers or scientists save lives, help the environment or serve their communities.

5. 4. Reverse engineer a favorite gadget • Have students take apart devices such as cell phones, ipods or vacuum cleaners to see how they were designed and if they can imagine themselves as the designer, what could they do to make the design better? • Whatever students are interested in - medicine, robotics, architecture, music or sports - there’s probably a gadget needed to do it.

6. 5. Make Math Real-World • Math and Science are Important Tools • Math and Science Changed Millions of Lives • Math is one Tool in the Engineering Design Box • Three years of High School Math Needed: Engineer, Programmer, Accountant, Biologist, Medical Technician, Architect and Doctor

7. 6. Use graphics to represent ideas • Form of Communication often Overlooked • Communication can get the Job Done or Not • Enhance Communication Skills