STEAMed Up

Activity Overview

Why engage children in the iterative process of design and engineering? Because real-world, problem-based learning is foundational to encouraging agency and self-efficacy in our students. Additionally, the processes of exploration, creation, and improvement are natural ways for children to learn about the world and increase their understanding of how things work. In this activity, students are introduced to engineering through the reading of a beloved text and the engineering design process.

What You Need

• Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty on Epic!

• Engineering Design Process template

• Drawing materials: markers, colored pencils, crayons

• Optional: large poster paper, glue, decorations of choice

Steps

1. Read Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty on Epic!

2. Use the guiding questions below to discuss the problems that Rosie solves. Think about the steps that she goes through to finish her project successfully. Do her projects work right away? What does she do when things don’t go as expected?

3. Use the Engineering Design Process template to draw Rosie’s design process from the story. Talk about what it means to explore, create, and improve. Think about what order she did each part in. Did she have to go back to any parts more than once? What happened when she got to the end of the process? Go back in the story and match up the order of each part of the design process with the sequence of events from the text.

4. If preferred, hang the “Design Process” steps in your work space for inspiration, or make them into a poster.

Guiding Questions

• What problems does Rosie see?

• What steps does Rosie take to think about her projects?

• What does she use to build her projects?

• What would you do if you were Rosie and ___ was happening?

• If you knew Rosie, what would you tell her when her projects did not work?

• When was a time that you built a project? Did it solve a problem? What steps did you take? Was there anything you had to change about it?

Extensions

• Use a blank copy of the template to plan for your own design projects! What problems can you solve?

• Watch this video about engineer Alexis Lewis, and think about the ways that her solutions impact communities.

• Explore the Engineering Challenge Project Bank, and try out a different prompt each day.