1. Engineering is Elementary Piedmont Triad Education Consortium
Heidi Carlone,
Melony Allen,
HBC

2. Goals & Introductions
Invisible Helmets
HBC

3. What is Technology?
MHA

4. What comes to mind when you hear the word “technology”?

5. Technology in a Bag What is the technology?
What does your technology do? What problem does it solve?
How else could you use it?
What material(s) is it made of?
What other materials could it be made of?

6. Our definition of technology:

7. EiE defines technology as:
Anything human-made that is used to solve a problem or fulfill a desire.
Technology can be an object, a system, or a process.

8. What is Engineering?
HBC

9. What is the problem?
What do you need to know before you start?

10. Using verbs, describe what you did during the design process.

11. The Engineering Design Process
Brainstorming
No evaluation
Criteria
Constraints
Science knowledge
Imagine
Ask
The Goal
To solve a problem by developing or improving a technology.
Plan
Improve
Create
and test

12. Break!

13. Engineering at work!
MHA

14. Engineers…
build buildings
INTRODUCTION TO EIE and EDP-- SHARED

15. build bridges and roads.
Engineers…
build bridges and roads.

16. fix cars, engines, and machines.
Engineers…
fix cars, engines, and machines.

17. Engineers…
use or fix computers.

18. Engineers…
drive trains!

19. Curriculum Development ProcessStandards-Based, Research-Driven, Classroom-Tested
It took about 3,000 hours to develop a unit that is 8 to 10 hours of classroom time.
Initial Unit Development
Regional Pilot Testing (MA)
Unit Revisions
National Field Testing (CA,CO, MA, MN, NC)
Unit Revisions
Final Unit Released

20. Why Elementary Engineering? Why EiE?
Technological literacy is a basic 21st century literacy.
Engineering makes math and science relevant and integrates other disciplines.
Engineering practices build and reinforce 21st century skills.
EiE increases students’ awareness of and access to engineering and science careers
EiE is consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards

21. Engineering is Elementary
Lessons that integrate engineering and technology concepts into elementary science
Goal 1. Increase children’s technological literacy.
Goal 2. Increase elementary educators’ abilities to teach engineering and technology to their students.
Goal 3. Increase the number of schools in the U.S. that include engineering at the elementary level.
Goal 4. Conduct research and assessment about engineering teaching and learning at the elementary level.
Can we dump this slide?

22. EiE Unit Structure Lesson 1: Engineering Story
Prep Lesson: Technology in a Bag
Lesson 1: Engineering Story

23. EiE Storybooks The primary focus in US elementary schools is reading.
Teachers have a lot of time for reading and usually very little for science.
Elementary teachers are also much more comfortable with reading than science.
So start with what they are comfortable with and “borrow” reading minutes (you have to read about something).
Books have a child character from some country in the world who confronts a challenge.
Just happens to have an adult engineer in his/her life (parent, neighbor, relative)
Mentor introduces them to a problem-solving strategy, engineering design process that engineers use to work through a problem.
Child applies it and voila!
The challenge in the book is the same one the children will do in their classes.
The books set the context for why we would care about an engineering challenge.

24. Lesson 1: Engineering Storybook

25. EiE Unit Structure Lesson 2: A Broader View of an Engineering Field
Prep Lesson: Technology in a Bag
Lesson 1: Engineering Story
Lesson 2: A Broader View of an Engineering Field

26. Lesson 2: A Broader View of an Engineering Field

27. EiE Unit Structure Lesson 3: Scientific Data Inform Engineering Design
Prep Lesson: Technology in a Bag
Lesson 1: Engineering Story
Lesson 2: A Broader View of an Engineering Field
Lesson 3: Scientific Data Inform Engineering Design

28. Lesson 3: Science Connection
Activate prior scientific knowledge
Test and gather data about:
Materials and their properties
Efficacy of materials for a particular purpose
Gain understanding about:
Related scientific phenomena
Conducting tests, making predictions, drawing conclusions

29. EiE Unit Structure Lesson 4: Engineering Design Challenge
Prep Lesson: Technology in a Bag
Lesson 1: Engineering Story
Lesson 2: A Broader View of an Engineering Field
Lesson 3: Scientific Data Inform Engineering Design
Lesson 4: Engineering Design Challenge

30. Lesson 4: Design Challenge
Guiding Question:
How can we use what we know about materials and their properties, our creativity, and the Engineering Design Process to design and improve a technology?

31. 21st Century Skill Building
Critical Thinking
Collaboration
Communication
Creativity

32. Engineering Practices
Problem Solving
Analysis and data- driven decisions
Variables and optimization

33. What do teachers and students have to say about EiE?
Video

34. Educator Resources Content Connections Supporting Documents
Mathematics
Science
Language Arts
Fine Arts
Educator Resources
Social Studies
Content Connections
Supporting Documents
Multimedia Resources
Student Assessments
Lesson plans that connect EiE units to other subject areas
How-To Videos
Storybook Illustration PDF Files
General Engineering, Technology, and EDP Assessments (multiple choice & open-ended)
Classroom Videos (by unit)
Family Letter Spanish Translations
Mathematics
Science
High-Resolution EDP Image
Language Arts
Unit-Specific Assessments (multiple choice & open-ended)
Fine Arts
Research and Evaluation Resources
Social Studies

35. Agricultural Engineering: Designing Hand Pollinators
The Best of Bugs
Agricultural Engineering: Designing Hand Pollinators

36. The Student Hat and The Teacher Hat

38. VOCABULARY
Insect - a small animal
with 3 body parts and 3
pairs of legs
Metamorphosis -
transformation from egg
to larva to pupa to adult
butterfly

39. Pesticide - a chemical used
to control insects
Pollination - the transfer
of pollen from the male
part of a flower to the female
part that results in the
growth of new seeds

40. Hand Pollinator - a tool that humans
use to pollinate a plant if the plant’s
natural pollinator is absent
Nectar - a sweet liquid inside
some flowers and plants that
attracts insects
Agricultural Engineer - a person
who uses his or her knowledge
of biology and living systems to
design solutions to problems

41. Mariana is a girl...

42. ...who lives in the Dominican Republic.  

43. She loves her garden and spends many hours there taking care of her plants. But one plant isn’t doing well— her ohelo (pronounced o-HAY-low) berry plant.
Her friend Pablo brought the ohelo from Hawaii for her (of course, obtaining special permission and quarantining the plant beforehand). It used to have flowers and red berries, but not anymore. It still has flowers, but no berries.   

44. Mariana doesn’t know why this is, so her father suggests that she ask her Tía (aunt) Leti who is an agricultural engineer. Mariana visits her aunt and explains the problem. “Tía Leti, I’ve been taking extra special care of my ohelo plant, but it will not produce berries.”   

45. Tía Leti asks Mariana if she knows how plants make seeds
Tía Leti asks Mariana if she knows how plants make seeds. Mariana does and explains the process of pollination to her aunt. Tía Leti explains that there are seeds inside of berries—this causes Mariana to wonder and “Ask” if her plant is being pollinated.

46. Mariana decides to test this hypothesis by observing her ohelo plant to see if there are any insects visiting it and, indirectly, pollinating it. Her aunt gives her a journal with which to collect her data and…

47. …Mariana gets to work.

48. For weeks, she watches butterflies and other insects visit the plants in the garden.

49. Mariana soon realizes that not a single insect is visiting her ohelo plant.

50. When she tells her aunt about what she observed, this leads to a discussion about why insects visit flowers and the benefits of this behavior to both the insect (food) and the plant (pollination).

51. When Mariana realizes that there is nectar in her ohelo plant, she asks, “Why won’t the insects come to eat it?” Her Tía Leti then responds with this analogy, “imagine that you came over to my house for dinner, and on the table I laid out some food. But I put all the food in the very center of the table where you couldn’t reach it. Do you think you would have a very good dinner?”

52. So with that thought, Mariana starts to think up solutions for her ohelo plant and wonders if she might bring in an insect from Hawaii to pollinate her plant.

53. To think through her solution, Mariana decides to go visit her aunt at work.

54. While Mariana is there, she learns about invasive species…

55. …pesticides, and Integrated Pest Management.

56. Mariana decides that she might have a better solution to her problem—pollinating the plant herself rather than introducing an invasive species.

57. Tía Leti shows Mariana a technology that she uses in her work—a hand pollinator.

58. Tía Leti then tells Mariana about the Engineering Design Process and how it will help her create her hand pollinator. By asking more questions, imagining, planning…

59. …creating and testing, and improving, Mariana creates a successful hand pollinator.
NOTE: The storybook is purposefully vague about Mariana’s successful design because we do not want students to believe that Mariana’s solution is the only solution.

60. And sure enough, her ohelo plant produces berries.

61. The end.

62. Lesson 1: Important Points
The Storybook:
• introduces field of engineering.
• makes science content relevant through the context of the engineering design challenge.
• introduces science and engineering vocabulary.
• introduces the Engineering Design Process.
• inspires students to do the engineering design challenge.
• is purposefully vague about the child’s solution.

65. Teacher Hat: Lesson 1 Lesson takes 2-3 sessions of about 30-45 minutes
Reading / ELA minutes

66. Lesson 2:Who Are Agricultural Engineers?
Guiding Question:
How do agricultural engineers use Integrated Pest management to help farmers?

67. Problem Solution Winter Apple Tree Spring Apple Tree Summer Apple Tree
Fall Apple
Tree

68. The Play’s Characters

69. Spring
Narrator 1: It’s springtime, Farmer Anne’s favorite time. She takes a walk around the farm. She isn’t gone long before she comes running back to the house.
Farmer Anne: Farmer Bob! I see lots of green caterpillars! They are munching the pretty pink blossoms on our apple trees.
Farmer Bob: Oh, no! We can’t let the caterpillars eat the blossoms! If we don’t stop those caterpillars, we’ll have no apples.
Fruit Tree Leaf Roller: I am a fat, green caterpillar. We stay in our eggs all winter long. When it is springtime we wake up hungry for apple blossoms. Yum!

70. Farmer Anne: What should we do?
Farmer Bob: We don’t want to spray pesticides again. (Farmer Anne and Farmer shake their heads, “No.”)
Chorus: (sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat):
Bugs, bugs, bugs invade
Our apple crop they munch!
An agricultural engineer
Saves apples for our lunch!
Agricultural Engineer 1: Let’s try Integrated Pest Management. We can bring some lady beetle larvae in to eat the caterpillars in your orchard.
Farmer Bob and Farmer Anne: Yay! We’re saved!

71. Which is the problem? Which are the solutions?

72. Problem Solution Winter Apple Tree Spring Apple Tree Summer Apple Tree
Fall Apple
Tree

73. Summer
Narrator 2: It’s summertime. Lots of honeybees and other insects are visiting the apple trees. The insects pollinate the flowers. Farmer Bob and Farmer Anne are happy. At the end of the summer, tiny apples start to grow. Farmer Bob and Farmer Anne go for a walk in their orchard.
Farmer Bob: Oh no! Some of the apples are sick and brown. What’s that bug?
Weevil: I am a weevil. At night, I climb up the tree trunk for a tasty meal. These apples are yummy!

74. Chorus: (sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat):
Bugs, bugs, bugs invade
Our apple crop they munch!
An agricultural engineer
Saves apples for our lunch!
Agricultural Engineer 2: Let’s try Integrated Pest Management. We can paint glue around the tree trunk. The weevils will get stuck in the glue. Then they will not be able to climb the tree.
Farmer Bob and Farmer Anne: We’re saved!

75. Which is the problem? Which are the solutions?

76. Problem Solution Winter Apple Tree Spring Apple Tree Summer Apple Tree
Fall Apple
Tree

78. Return to the Guiding Question:
How do agricultural engineers use
Integrated Pest Management to help farmers?

79. Reflection:
What were the technologies that the agricultural engineers used to solve the farmer’s problems?
What kind of biological knowledge did the agricultural engineers need to know in order to implement IPM?
Is Integrated Pest Management a technology? Why or why not?

80. Teacher Hat: Lesson 2 Advanced vs. Basic versions of the play
Connect to local agriculture

81. Lunch Break...

82. Lesson 3:Exploring Pollination Materials
Guiding Question:
What materials and properties of materials work best for picking up and dropping off pollen?
Remind about pollination…
Pollination is the process plants use to transfer pollen from the stamen (male) part of the flower to the pistil (female part) of another flower of the same species to produce seeds.
- Accomplished with wind, insects, birds, or sometimes self-pollinating.
- We’re focusing on bees/butterflies role in the ecosystem….

83. Materials and Their Properties
Object
Material
Properties

84. Make a Prediction:
What do you think will be good qualities or properties of a material used to make a hand pollinator? Why do you think so?

85. How will we know which materials will work best?

86. Pollen
Nectar

89. Evaluating Pollination Materials
Pick up?
Drop off?
How much?
marble
tape
eraser
foil
pompom
pipe cleaner

90. Return to the Guiding Question:
What materials and properties of materials work best for picking up and dropping off pollen?

91. Reflection: Which two materials deposited the MOST pollen?
Which two materials deposited the LEAST pollen?
Which did some pairs have different results than others?
What can we do if this happens in the classroom?
Based on your data, which materials do you think will be the best choice for your hand pollinator design?

92. Teacher Hat: Lesson 3 Importance of materials analysis for students
Allowing students to discuss testing methodology
Connections to mathematics and science
MHA

93. Lesson 4:Designing a Hand Pollinator
Guiding Question:
How can we use our knowledge of pollination, materials and their properties, and the Engineering Design Process to design and improve a hand pollinator for a model flower?
HBC

96. Ask

97. Imagine

98. Plan

99. Create

100. Improve

102. Return to the Guiding Question:
How can we use our knowledge of pollination, materials and their properties, and the Engineering Design Process to design and improve a hand pollinator for a model flower?

103. Reflection: Describe your original hand pollinator design.
What materials did you choose? Why?
Was your first design successful? How do you know?
How did you decide to improve your hand pollinator?
Were your improvements successful? How do you know?
If you redesigned your hand pollinator to work with another flower, what did you do?
There should always be a colon after the titles “Reflection”, “Directions,” or “Goal”

104. Teacher Hat: Lesson 4
Encourage students to connect to Lesson 3 data when choosing materials for their designs.
Students often struggle with the “Imagine” and “Plan” steps of the EDP and might need some extra support.
Importance of the “Improve” step of the EDP.

105. NC Essential Standards...
EiE Units Aligned with NC 4th & 5th Grades
HBC