Before she participated in a Design and Discovery summer program, Taylor, an eighth-grader, had no idea what engineers do. The Design and Discovery curriculum, developed by Intel® Innovation in Education, takes students through an extended series of hands-on inquiry activities that give them an understanding of design and engineering principles. By the end of the two-week enrichment experience, Taylor was using the same processes that professional engineers use to design, build, test, and improve her own working prototype of a new product.
Design and Discovery, available at no charge on the Intel Innovation in Education Web site, has just been updated with new features and real-life examples of student projects—including the story of Taylor's prize-winning invention, a motorized storage device engineered to keep her necklaces from tangling.
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Last May, before Travis could leave his tribal home in the Southwest for a trip to Portland, Oregon, where he was a finalist in the 2004 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), he had an important family duty. His uncle had just died, leaving Travis, 17, the oldest male in his family. By the customs of his Akimel O'otham tribe, it was his responsibility to dig his uncle's grave and participate in a weeklong funeral ceremony.
Travis, a senior at Skyline Technical High School in Chandler, Arizona, has designed a prize-winning engineering project using aquaponics—a fusing of aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil)—to create a mini-ecosystem that produces both fish and plants for human consumption.
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Intel® Innovation in Education plans to introduce its newest thinking tool in 2005, expanding the suite of online tools available for teachers to use with their students. The new tool is designed to support learners in the process of making well-reasoned, well-supported arguments. Developed in collaboration with cognitive scientists and now in the pilot phase, the tool is being tested for classroom use by experienced teachers.
Why is making a sound argument a skill worth learning? What kind of support do students need to be successful at argumentation? Kate McNeill of the University of Michigan has been considering these questions in her doctoral research in science education. Recently, we spoke with her about the higher-order thinking skills involved in making a good argument.
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