To support effective practices that develop ownership in the school/district’s beliefs, mission, vision and values as underpinnings for continuous improvement.
Brainstorming is a team creativity activity that helps generate a large number of potential solutions to a problem. In this activity, students participate in a group brainstorming activity to generate possible solutions to their engineering design challenge. Students learn brainstorming guidelines and practice within their teams to create a poster of ideas. The posters are used in a large group critiquing activity that ultimately helps student teams create a design project outline. (Note: Conduct this activity in the context of a design project that students are working on; this activity is Step 3 in a series of six that guide students through the engineering design loop.)
This resource provides recommended purposes and functions of district, school, and teacher teams engaged in meaningful continuous improvement. It also provides a blank template to document a district’s current state of linked team infrastructure. Comparing their current state to the recommended system provides an avenue to target improvement in collaboration and leadership practices.
Student teams follow the steps of the engineering design process to meet the challenge of getting their entire class from one location on the playground to the sidewalk without touching the ground between. The class develops a well thought-out plan while following the steps of the engineering design process. Then, they test their solution by going outside and trying it out. Through the post-activity assessment, they compare their problem-solving experience to real life engineering challenges, such as creating new forms of transportation or new product invention.
Provides students opportunities to meet senior executives of private and public institutions, and to discuss key management issues from the perspective of top management. Students prepare detailed briefings identifying and analyzing important management issues facing these organizations. Seminar concludes with a one-week field trip to New York City.
Students apply what they have learned about the engineering design process to a real-life problem that affects them and/or their school. They chose a problem as a group, and then follow the engineering design process to come up with and test their design solution. This activity teaches students how to use the engineering design process while improving something in the school environment that matters to them. By performing each step of the design process, students can experience what it is like to be an engineer.