Engineering

Hi 5th graders, I'm misses rout and I teach science at warnell Miller in Mansfield. Now you might not be one of my students if you attend blasberg or liberty elementary, but this activity would certainly be something you can try at home. Our topic this week is engineering. So I have some review definitions for us to look at. Engineering can be thought of as creating building or improving on an idea that you might have. And some people think of engineering as finding a solution to a problem. When we say problem, it might actually be an idea or a hobby or something that you're just curious about. What I love about engineering is that it challenges you to think outside the box. That's the box. That's you. And you're thinking. And you're being creative. And you're using trial and error, and you probably experience a lot of failure when you engineer something. But that's the fun part because you get to try again until you have success. A reference I use in my classroom a lot is this engineering design process. You can find this chart if you click on the link to mister Fleming's classroom, which is included in our website post for the week. Engineering often involves redoing some or all of the steps over a period of time. This chart can also be useful for some vocabulary review. So just as our week one post for the headbands game, you can cut out cards and write out these vocab words and play the headbands game where you just give clues maybe to a parent or a sibling and they try and guess the vocab word that they have on their forehead. If you choose to try the brainstorming step, this is an example of a brainstorming web that we use sometimes in our classrooms. It's just an easy way to get your ideas out on paper. You could put your idea here in the middle, my example is building a birdhouse, and then you would branch off with different subtopics. So maybe the materials you would need to build the bird house, maybe the measurements that you would be using. Or maybe some constraints or problems that you will probably run into. And the last reference I have is a list of some basic ideas, so I've listed the bird house as my example. Maybe you're getting ready to do some gardening or some landscaping outside and you could be innovative and create some type of tool or mechanism that would be useful to you or your parents. Maybe you're spending a lot of time with your pet now and you could come up with something they would enjoy. Or because you're probably doing a lot of school work now from home, you could create an organizer, maybe a pen and pencil holder, or maybe some type of notebook that keeps you organized. I also have a lot of the leftover recycled materials that I'm suggesting you try and use. We've got lots of cereal boxes at my house right now. And here's a basic garbage bag box. But you can obviously take it apart, reuse. Be creative. Maybe a paper towel tube could be useful for your project. And besides cereal, we're eating a lot of ice cream at my house. So you could make use of this. And of course, have your parents or adults help you with any parts of this project. So check with them before you use something. And ask for their help if there's some cutting involved. I hope you have fun with this project and I hope everyone is safe and healthy. Take care.