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How do you go from great idea to working prototype of a new product? Developing creative solutions to real problems is what designers and engineers do every day. Now, a brand-new curriculum called Design and Discovery is available for free on the Intel® Innovation in Education Web site. The curriculum introduces students in the middle grades to the fundamental concepts of design and engineering.
Design and Discovery includes everything needed to organize and teach a program, including detailed lesson plans for inquiry-based, hands-on learning. The course takes students, ages 11-14, through a series of steps and learning activities, building their understanding in a sequential way.Students start by examining the design of the simple paper clip, then quickly progress to discovering the inner workings of a bicycle. Hands-on activities teach them how to wire electrical circuits, build mechanical toys, and accomplish other targeted goals.
When it's time to create their own working prototypes, students take their ideas for new products through the same process that professionals use. They learn to keep a design notebook, recording their observations as they gather input from focus groups, put prototypes through field tests, and make design modifications.
The course is appropriate for both formal and informal learning contexts; middle school science electives, summer camps, youth groups, or after-school enrichment activities.
The Design and Discovery Web site includes the complete curriculum, which consists of 18 sessions, each lasting 2.5 hours. Web resources include all handouts, short readings, materials lists, and links to online resources such as the U.S. Patent Office Web site. Design and Discovery also explains how teachers or youth leaders can take advantage of opportunities to enlist mentors from the fields of design and engineering. Suggested field trips take students into their local communities for a fresh look at the designed and engineered world.
Design and Discovery grew out of a summer camp project called Fair Play. Fair Play was intended to increase girls' abilities and confidence in technical areas and allow them to experience the fun and excitement of being an engineer who solves real problems. Design and Discovery builds on the success of Fair Play, expanding inquiry opportunities to all learners. It has been field-tested and specially tailored for downloading from the Web.
Students who have participated in the course have developed working prototypes for such innovative products as a sleeping bag roller, wireless Christmas lights, a remote-controlled grocery cart, and a device to help a beginning bass player with proper hand positioning. The program also makes the behind-the-scenes work of designers and engineers more visible. One student marveled at how "so much thought and time goes into something as simple as a paper clip or potato masher."
Some students may wind up developing prototypes they will want to share with a larger audience. Science and engineering fairs, such as local affiliates of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, offer a venue where students can share their great ideas. The Design and Discovery is available at www.intel.com/education/design
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