Working in groups, students look at three different villages in various parts of Africa and design economically viable engineering solutions to answer the energy needs of the off-the-grid small towns, given limited budgets. Each village has different nearby resources, both renewable and nonrenewable. Student teams conduct research, make calculations, consider the options and create plans, which they present to the class. Through their investigations and planning of custom solutions for each locale, they experience the real-world engineering research and analysis steps of the engineering design process.

This is an interdisciplinary research project module with a 6-8 scope including NGSS (MS-LS4-5) and Common Core ELA standards (RST.6-8.1 and WHST.6-8.8) where learners explore Genetic Engineering and Gene Therapy uses and establish an evidence-based position to argue the question "Should humans harness genetic science and engineering for our benefit?"Expected sequence and timeframe for this module is approximately fifteen 60-minute periods in both science and ELA classrooms, which includes research time (with technology), composition of argumentative essays and Google Slides presentations.  Modifications for learners with exceptionalities are not included, but are readily accommodated through modifications to quantity of supports, DOK in delivery, and interpretation of the grading rubric(s). Resources include a Google Drive link that is able to be viewed by anyone with the link.  Please download the files or make a copy to your own Google Drive.

This lesson can be added to the study of the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, specifically when it’s time to release your classroom monarchs in the fall. If your class isn’t studying monarchs, but the monarch migration is observed in your area, this is a lesson that could be used to find out more.The pursuits addressed are skills and intellectualism. The skills in this case are reading a map and gathering details from a text. Intellect is the practice of using skills to increase the understanding of the world around you, the practice of reflecting on how one uses a skill. According to Gholdy Muhammad in Cultivating Genius, Intellectualism is knowledge of people, places, things and concepts and the ability to put this knowledge into action. As learning takes place, one asks, “What am I becoming smarter about?” The students are using the pursuit of intellectualism to discover how science research works to discover new things about the world around them.