FOURTH GRADE l Engineering Design Practices I Green Energy
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lab Happenings
Essential Questions
- What do engineers do?
- How can we minimize the negative impact that energy use has on the environment?
- How can we engineer our way to a sustainable future?
Project Time: Save the Earth!
The Project
- How can we build a mini city model of the future out of recycled materials that teaches about the sustainable energy possibilities of the future?
City Planning Begins! (Reads from most recent to past)
- City Planning #3: Laying out the city. How can we put the department projects together in a way that makes sense?
- City Planning#2: What should we call our city? What is in a name?
- Department Meeting #5: Building and Iteration!
- Department Meeting #4: Design Time! Critique.
- Department Meeting #3: Do our plans fit with the other departments? How can we make our plans actually work? What do we need?
- Department Meeting #2: We are using SCRUM BOARDS to stay organized and efficient with the many layers of this project. Students have picked out their jobs and will begin design work, critique, and prototyping this week!
- Each student has been given their own assignment to make for H.U.D. (Housing and Urban Development). Houses, businesses, green spaces, fire stations, hospitals, schools, etc. are coming along. Ask your engineer what they are up to!
- Department Meeting #1: set meeting location, meeting agreements, share brainstorm ideas, share out with the whole group
- City Planning Meeting #1: inspiration, project nitty gritty and visual examples, Department assignments, on-your-own-brainstorm
- The "Amazing Things are Happening Now!" video series begins. I put together a series of inspiring engineering videos and power points to kick off each class. In this way, we looked at Soket balls, solar roads, solar satellite farms, solar windows, floating wind turbines, and more!
- We used the Play Dough Protocol to explore concepts like zones, green spaces, public spaces, city services, equitable access, and more!
Laying the Foundation
Investigations:
Challenges:
- The Bouncing Light Up Ball
- Spooling Around with potential and kinetic energy (Day 1 Launch Make-It-Take-It Lab)
- Electricity FUNdamentals with Snap Circuits
- Squishy Lights
- A Steady Hand
- Design a Better Backpack
- How Does Electricity Get to Your Home?
- Green Energy Snap Circuits
Challenges:
- The Air and Water Tank was a challenging build requiring tons of collaboration, concentration, and grit!
- Hydro Power! We built dams out of sticks, rocks, and clay. Ask your enegineer about their reservoir. Did it leak? How many iterations did they do? Which dam was best? Why?
- Solar Energy Day! We explored solar energy and then built a solar rover. Lots of collaboration, tiny parts, and reading to follow directions!
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba is about a curious 14 year old boy in Malawi, Africa who figures out how to make electricity for his family. You can get a glimpse of his inspiring story here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzlgyDAMupw
- The Sail Away Challenge: You and your partner are going to design sails in order to decide which material and shape are best for a wind turbine blade. See which sail can travel down the fishing line path the farthest!
Ask Your Engineer
- What do engineers do?
- What is a circuit?
- What is renewable energy? What is non-renewable energy?
- How can we conserve energy?
- How does California get most of it's energy?
- How does electricity get to our home?
- What are the pros and cons of wind turbines? Should we build one in our backyard? Off shore? Environmental impact?
Engineering at Home
- Don't miss the IMAX film Dream Big- Engineering Our World-A Heartfelt Story of Human Ingenuity at the Reuben H. Fleet
- Here is the link to HTeNC's new online library created by the Second Grade! There are some great engineering challenges for you to try! http://coolbooksforeverybody.weebly.com/fairytale-engineering.html
- Here are some great science and engineering videos! http://www.sciencechannel.com/video-topics/earth-science/earth-day/
- Get the scoop on the latest gadgets, the coolest inventions, and the most exciting discoveries! http://students.egfi-k12.org/category/e-news/
- I love the idea of setting out a building material at night with a building challenge card for the early rising engineer! You can download some great challenge cards here! http://picklebums.com/building-challenge-cards/
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Can You Help?
Folks often ask me, "How can I help?" If you are interested in supporting the Engineering Lab through donating your time or materials, please shoot me an email ([email protected]). As our projects get fleshed out, I'll also post a wish list. In the meantime, if you're looking to donate, we always need glue, tea sized boxes, and masking tape. LOTS AND LOTS OF MASKING TAPE. Thanks!
Can You Help?
Folks often ask me, "How can I help?" If you are interested in supporting the Engineering Lab through donating your time or materials, please shoot me an email ([email protected]). As our projects get fleshed out, I'll also post a wish list. In the meantime, if you're looking to donate, we always need glue, tea sized boxes, and masking tape. LOTS AND LOTS OF MASKING TAPE. Thanks!