JetToy Challenge Unit Plan

The JetToy Challenge

Through the Engineering Design Process, students build and create a self-propelled car with their design teams, and by the end, are able to confidently answer this scientific focus question below:

How can we make a self-propelled car that travels the farthest?

STUDENT EXPECTATIONS

Content Objectives and skills

PROCESS SKILLS

4 C's of Education

Collaboration: Working together with others. In Design Teams, students work with different personalities and learn that each person has their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Students have to harness those strengths in a way that it helps the group succeed as a whole.
Communication: Sharing thoughts and ideas with others. In coordination with collaboration, students have to find effective ways to communicate their thoughts and feelings to other design team group members.
Critical Thinking: Thinking about problems in new ways. Students have to think in a strategic manner in order to solve issues and problems that arise throughout the entire process.
Creativity: Using new approaches to get things done. Students have to be unique in their car designs, constantly thinking about how to make it travel more efficiently.

Engineering Design Process

Students follow the Engineering Design Process as they go through each stage of the JetToy Challenge:

Define the problem or observe a phenomenon.
Identify constraints on your solution (time, money, materials, etc.) and criteria for success.
Brainstorm multiple solutions for the problem or observed phenomenon.
Select the most promising solution.
Prototype your solution.
Test and evaluate your prototype.
Iterate to improve your prototype.
Communicate your solution.

Inquiry Based Learning

Throughout the JetToy Process, students will experience different forms of the inquiry-based learning process:

Structured Inquiry: Students follow the lead of the teacher as the entire class engages in one inquiry together. During JetToy, this style of inquiry is present when students are given an initial phenomena during the Engage phase of the 5 E's.
Controlled Inquiry: Teacher chooses topics and identifies the resources students will use to answer questions. During JetToy, this style of inquiry is present when students are given a specific variable to test during the Elaborate phase of the 5 E's.
Guided Inquiry: Teacher chooses topics/questions and students design a product or solutions. During JetToy, this style of inquiry is present when students are building their JetToy prototype cars to test during the Explain phase of the 5 E's.
Free Inquiry: Students choose their topics without reference to any prescribed outcome. During JetToy, this style of inquiry is present when students are given the opportunity at the very end to build their car any way they choose for one final competition. This final build falls outside of the 5E model of inquiry, but allows students the opportunity to use what they have observed/learned and create their own JeToy with whatever parameters they feel will help it travel the farthest distance.

LESSON MATERIALS

Each Design Team Needs:

Other Supplies (Not In The List Above):

Access to Schoology (Our District's Learning Management Tool)
Chromebook
Digital Interactive Science Notebook (Google Slides)

5E LESSON PLAN WITH TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

ENGAGE

In this phase, we will start students out with this phenomenon as a way to capture interest (and spark a few laughs). Students will start out by recording questions and observations in their composition notebooks or digital interactive science notebooks using Google Slides. In addition to student's science notebooks, we could also gather student ideas using Padlet, a digital display board of ideas and thoughts. We will encourage students to start out their observations with any of the following prompts if they have problems getting started:

The boy fell off the sled because I believe (student states reason).
The sled went and the boy did not because (student states reason).
I can think of a similar situation in my life when (student lists their personal scenario).

EXPLORE

In this phase, students are tasked with a hands-on activity to help them break down the proposed phenomena in the engage phase. Students will record their own first focus question answer (a hypothesis) in their composition notebooks or digital interactive science notebooks using Google Slides. This focus question and student responses will help drive student thinking and learning as we move forward through the remainder of the 5 E steps. Students will compare answers with other members of the class and we will ultimately form their JetToy Design Teams after a small classroom discussion. As students begin with their Design Team groups, students will watch a video on EdPuzzle that walks them through the process of building a JetToy Chassis and JetToy Motor. As they begin to test and collect their group data, they will use Google Sheets to record distance measurements in data tables.

EXPLAIN

In this phase, students will meet with other Design Teams in the classroom and compare their designs with other groups. By comparing designs, students begin to see how other groups are both similar and different compared to their own. Students should have a discussion with other groups by focusing their talk with each other on:

The group’s design and the purpose/thinking behind it.
How far the car traveled.
What the group learned and struggled with.
What questions the group has.

Students will also log any changes they will now make to their JetToy in their science composition or digital interactive science notebooks using Google Slides. At this time, students will also have a sense-making reflection with the teacher where they will have the opportunity to speak out their thinking with additional groups around the classroom. Instead of a sense-making reflection discussion in-person, this same reflection could also be done in a Schoology Discussion Board or FlipGrid Video. A Schoology Discussion Board would allow students to write, post audio, or post a short video reflecting on the changes they would make after speaking with other groups. FlipGrid would also allow groups to make a short video reflecting on the changes they would make.

ELABORATE

In this phase, and after reflection during the explanation phase, Design Teams will decide as a class how they will modify their JetToy prototypes into one design that is the same across all teams. Doing this helps isolate variables to test so that groups can test other variables to determine which conditions will yield the longest distance traveled. Design Teams will first modify their prototypes accordingly and then test one of the two variables:

Balloon Size
Nozzle Size

Students will record their data once more in Google Sheets after they test the two variables above.

EVALUATE

In the last phase, students will use their collected data in the elaboration phase to make a final conclusion in the form of a CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) statement as they answer the original focus question once more (How can we make a self-propelled car that travels the farthest?). Students will use the following criteria to answer their focus question in the CER format:

C: Claim - What is your claim? How did your thinking change?

E: Evidence - What is your evidence? (Use your data)

R: Reasoning - What are the science concepts that back-up your data?

Students would record their answers in their science composition books or digital science interactive notebook using Google Slides. To gather student ideas in one location outside of science notebooks, the teacher could also consider having students create a WeVideo or Adobe Spark Page that summarizes their final JetToy design from start to finish, but it would be important for students to also discuss as a class in one final reflection opportunity. If students created some type of WeVideo or Spark Page, they would have to embed their shared link in a Schoology Discussion Board for our final class reflection to happen together.

UNIT ASSESSMENTS

u07d1 Rubric - Scott Oste - EDIM 513: Inquiry Based Learning

FORMATIVE

Students are assessed in each of the 5E stages throughout the entire JetToy Challenge. I will be using the rubric above to evaluate on an individual student level how they progress through the entire process. Below is a list of ways that I intend on assessing student learning throughout:

Digital Interactive Science Notebook Phenomenon Observations or Padlet Post
Digital Interactive Science Notebook Focus Question Hypothesis
Google Sheet Diagnostic Testing Data Collection
Sense-Making Reflection in a Schoology Discussion Board or FlipGrid Video
Google Sheet Variable Data Collection

SUMMATIVE

At the very end of the JetToy Challenge, it will be important that I assess both at a Design Team level and on an individual level to gather a broader view of student learning through the Engineering Design Process. Below is how I would assess students at the end of the JetToy Challenge:

Design Team Evaluation: All students will complete a Google Form reflection, in which they will provide likert scale scores (1 - 4 point scale) on the effectiveness of their group to follow the 4 C's - Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. Following the completion of the form, the teacher will meet face-to-face with each group for a few minutes to share out group thoughts, feelings, and overall impressions. Student responses from this reflection assignment will only be used by the teacher to have a productive final discussion at the end and will not serve as a grade in our teacher gradebook.

Individual Student Evaluation: Student's final individual conclusions (based on the original focus question) will be posted in their Digital Interactive Science Notebook, using the CER strategy as their writing guide. Student responses from this post will serve as student's final assessment grade in our teacher gradebook.

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