PBI Experiences
PBI Placement
School: P. K. Yonge
Course: Introduction to Engineering Design
Grades: 10th Grade
In the Introduction to Engineering Design PLTW course, students are introduced to the fundamentals of design. They are taught sketching techniques, view planes, dimensioning, and use these skills to learn how to work with Computer-aided design (CAD) software. This course is meant to set the foundations for students who choose to continue through the progression of Engineering courses that follow. Within the time spent with this class, the lessons I taught included dimensioning multi-view sketches, learning how to translate sketches onto CAD software such as OnShape, and increasingly more difficult skills on OnShape.
Student Work
The majority of the work we performed with students was helping them develop their skills on the CAD software, OnShape. For this reason, showing the progression of our students through their journeys in learning OnShape techniques and skills was an important way to see their learning. In our class, we had two distinct groups of students in terms of skill levels. Some students had previous experience with CAD software due to their extracurricular activities and clubs while others were experiencing CAD software for the very first time. Below you will see the progression of two students, Student A and Student B, through their work. Student A has had previous experience with software such as OnShape while Student B has never been exposed to a program such as this before.
Example #1
The lesson represented by the student work involves the first week students were exposed to the program OnShape. They were tasked with watching videos and taking notes, and completing an exercise on OnShape. This exercise was taught live by the student-teachers and students were encouraged to follow along on their own OnShape programs.
Student A #1.docxStudent A
Student A received a score of 4/4 for their submission on this assignment. As previously stated, Student A has had previous experience with OnShape through extracurricular clubs. They were able to implement previous knowledge to complete this assignment with relative ease.
Student B
Student B received a score of 0/4 for their submission on this lesson. Student B's first encounter with CAD software such as OnShape was in this class. They had no previous knowledge to fall back on and use on this activity. The frustration at the activity and technological issues may be reasons for which the student submitted a blank document.
Example #2
Much like the previous example's lesson, this lesson also involved students watching videos and taking notes then completing an exercise. Unlike the previous week, where the student-teachers taught all students live, students were tasked with placing themselves into break out rooms with the resources they felt they needed. They could have worked independently, worked with some assistance, or be worked through the exercise completely.
Student A #2.docxStudent A
Student A received a score of 4/4 for their submission on this assignment. Student A is consistently mastering the skills on OnShape and is able to complete the exercise appropriately. Although they had previous experience, they did not choose the independent work option when working on this exercise. Instead they choose the moderate assistance option. This shows that Student A is open to learning and checking their work to ensure they fully grasp the material.
Student B #2.docxStudent B
Student B received a score of 3/4 for their submission on this assignment. Comments left on Student B's submission were, "We noticed that your area was a bit off and the dimensions of your sketch were also off from what they should have been. Take a second at that and resubmit please." Student B improved from the previous week, were the submission was completely blank. This week, notes were included and a screenshot of the exercise. However, there were still some issues with the dimensions and area that we were looking for. Still, Student B showed improvement with completing the assignment. It could have to do with increased confidence and knowledge on OnShape or the ability to choose the resources they needed in order to complete the task.
Example #3
In this final example, the students were tasked with their final OnShape lesson. After the lessons they had received, they would be tasked on completing a project using their OnShape knowledge. The culmination of all their hard work was finalized with this final exercise. Once again, students watched the videos and took notes, but this time they completed the exercise in solo break out rooms. They were welcome to ask for help for the student-teachers, but other then that that they worked at their own pace.
Student A #3.docxStudent A
Student A received a score of 4/4 for their submission on this assignment. Student A showed mastery in example #1 and continued to show mastery throughout the rest of the examples. They consistently held themselves to high standards and worked to achieve them every week with us.
Student B #3.docxStudent B
Student B received a score of 4/4 for their submission on this assignment. Student B has showed increasingly skills and mastery with their OnShape skills. They have gained confidence in their skills and were able to continue to work for mastery. They begun to hold themselves to high standards set in the classroom, and used that to achieve mastery.
Formative Assessments
Formative Assessments were used to help students identify their own learning. The use of FA's allowed teachers to take a step back, and allow students to assess their own learning. They were not graded based on correctness, more on completion. The purpose of the FA's used with students were to help them take a look at where they were in their learning, how much further they had to go to get to 'mastery', and what they could do to improve their learning. Below are two example of how we accomplished this in the classroom:
Formative Assessment #1
In this formative assessment, students were tasked with identifying errors in pre-dimensioned multi-view sketches. This was done at the end of a lesson, where students had themselves worked on dimensioning multi-view sketches. Students wrote in their engineering notebooks the errors they identified, and turned in pictures of their notebooks. They were to use what they had learned, to identify what was wrong with the dimensioned sketches. This reversal of the skill, from doing the dimensioning to assessing dimensioning, allowed them to consider what was need versus what was not needed. Were the correct annotations used? The right lines? Were the numbers in the right locations? This tasked helped them identify any gaps in their own knowledge about dimensioning and made them refer to the dimensioning flowchart to identify the correct errors, helping them reconsider their learning and tackle any misconceptions that may have formed when doing the exercises.
Formative Assessment #2
In this formative assessment, students were tasked with identifying resources that they wanted/needed to be able to complete a task. They were given the option of 3 breakout rooms they could work in, one was independent work, one was being taught live by a student-teacher, and the last was working while a student-teacher was present to answer any questions. These options were given because student-teachers noticed the differences in skills in the students and the sense that some needed more one on one while others wanted to work independently. This was assessed through the use of the Google Form to the right. Students had to look at their knowledge, their comfort level, and use how they felt about the exercises they had previously done to determine the best room for them. Because they were reminded by their teacher to refer to how they felt that week to determine what room they should choose, students took an introspective look at their struggles in the past week with the program OnShape, and most were able to identify a room that they felt they would work best in.