Curriculum Projects: Cardboard Engineering

Overview

This unit is adapted from a 15-hour Cardboard Engineering unit designed for high schoolers. I tested this unit at a four-day (12 hour) day camp originally. There is a need to redesign to make a more cohesive flow of the sequences of projects and how the content ties together. This unit will be used in primarily informal workshops and camps. The unit includes the construction of an electric car for tourists to use, a bridge model at a popular tourist location for the cars to travel across, and the addition of a safety feature using the micro:bit as a simulation for larger electronics or computerized systems. The final curriculum will encompass all three projects, interconnected as a proposed tourist attraction.

This curriculum is based on shorter, informal Cardboard Engineering K-12 workshops I have been holding at local libraries throughout the spring and summer. I have also offered Professional Development for teachers on using Cardboard Engineering in their classrooms. (See the presentation below.)

Educational Rationale

Assignment: In your curriculum, identify the learning goals that your lesson or unit is targeting and why they were chosen. Then describe your proposed piece of maker-centered curriculum and instruction. The project proposal should be supported by constructionist or other theory undergirding maker education. Minimum length is 5 double-spaced pages.

In this unit, I draw heavily from a quote in Maker-Centered Learning, Chapter 4, “Sensitivity to Design”, that really stuck with me. “[E]ncourage young people to see that their worlds are largely composed of objects and systems that have been designed and that these designs can be tinkered with or entirely reimagined.” This is what inspired me to make a challenge that was a connected collection of projects, some large and others smaller, that would challenge my students to think deeply about not just the objects but the system in which they operate. Likewise, this chapter’s discussion about “throwaway culture” and the tendency to focus on consumption rather than reusing things, fixing them, or repurposing them has led me to use primarily recycled materials such as cardboard.

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In this curriculum, the students work on a series of interconnected engineering projects that combine to address a larger real-world problem. Often when working in design, projects have many parts, each of which addresses a specific need or requirement. These parts come together to provide an overall solution to a more complex problem. This unit will simulate the experience of working on small parts to complete a whole. Students will learn aspects of project management in engineering by learning how multiple parts of a design brief go together, understanding how to make a simple timeline, determining which member of the team will work on specific items to the best advantage of the team, managing resources, planning for multiple stages of testing, adapting for change, integrating new elements into a plan, and empathizing with the needs of the customer. By creating a unit that incorporates three different, but related, smaller projects into a cohesive whole. My goal was to give students the opportunity to be challenged by a complex problem while still dealing with each aspect individually, making the overall experience engaging but not unnecessarily stressful or frustrating.

[Read my complete Educational Rationale.]

Mini Lessons

Assignment: Develop an engaging mini-project using micro:bit to discuss and practice. Align as many standards as possible.

To create my unit I made three mini-units that combine into one overarching whole. These are the mini lessons.

Mini Lesson 1: Making a Solar Powered Car

Source material: PITSCO STEM Curriculum for Solar Vehicles

Mini Lesson 2: Building the Bridge

Source material: CORI Bridge Design Challenge (DRAFT; Not for Distribution)

Mini Lesson 3: Enhancing Safety with micro:bit

Source materials: micro:bit Introduction to inputs & outputs

Engineering Notebook Sample

Assignment: Create a blank engineering notebook (Google Slides Presentation) requesting deliverables from students that would assess the standards and practices at each stage of the design process.

Students created an Engineering Notebook as their "pitch" in response to the bridge proposal they were given. If this was a classroom situation I would have also included a rubric on how the bridge would be assessed and provided space for the racer and micro:bit projects as well. However, given the informal nature of the program and the compressed timeline, I decided to focus mainly on the bridge. For my final curriculum project, I intend to flesh out all the details of the unit.

Final Curriculum

Assignment: Identify a set of learning goals aligned to the standards within a discipline or disciplines of choice. Design integrated curricula and plan instructional activities using tools and equipment of a makerspace. Propose appropriate assessments aligned to Maker Educators’ rubrics, as well as valid data to evaluate the success of the lesson(s) or unit. This is a culminating challenge applying all of the knowledge and skills acquired over the course of the semester. In the final class, students will present their curriculums to peers. Students are encouraged to provide each other feedback on their final projects in responding to the presentations.

In the Unit Plan below, I attempt to bring together the three projects into a cohesive whole.

Here is my generic Engineering Design Process Project rubric that I use for assessments of structures.

Improvements

• Develop a comprehensive Engineering Notebook to include all the projects.

• Develop a comprehensive Design Brief to include all the projects.

• Develop a comprehensive rubric.

• Add 4 outcomes and suggestions for Engineering sketches to the Engineering Notebook.

• Add budgetary constraints. Have students calculate how much they "spend" on materials.

• Have students create a timeline or Gantt chart to plan the project.

• Eliminate the solar panel requirement. Focus on rechargeable batteries for easier design and construction given limited time.

• Develop a way the vehicles can carry the 5 pound load for a dynamic weight challenge.

• Strengthen connections between form and function.