With the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this past Spring, I thought it was time that my students get their hands dirty and learn about alternative energy sources. Throughout the upcoming design challenge, we will be learning about energy conversion, forces, properties of matter, the engineering design process, and material selection. Each team of students will be designing their own wind turbine which will be tested to determine the maximum sustained voltage output.
I am not quite sure how long this challenge will take as it is a new one for me but each team will create their own presentation (powerpoint, video, photostory with voice over, etc) to demonstrate their understanding of the basics of wind-turbine design and energy production including, I hope, the pros and cons of this type of energy.
If you click the link (title of post) you will be taken to a Science Olympiad web page. I am using this model for our own design challenge.
I think it is great that you are extending the curriculum to real world issues. My son followed the news reports on the Gulf oil spill and was disturbed by the lack of results over a long period of time. Maybe the folks in charge of that should have asked the children of the US for their ideas! Good luck with the experiments
ReplyDeleteWendy W- Matt's mom
The scientific method and the engineering and design process are very similar but very different. I found that they are similar as they both have you make a hypothesis and report your results. However they are both different by at the end of the engineering design process it has you redesign your experiment but with the scientific method it has you report your results. Both of these methods can be used to answer a question just they have you show the information differently.
ReplyDeleteThe graphs have many simalarities and differences and they are the steps and the different purposes. if you look at the two steps you can tell that they are very simalar. This means that solving conflicts and conducting expirements are done in simalar ways. For example, if you look at both step twos both of them have to do with research. You will also see that the graphs show steps for completely different purposes. The first one helps you conduct an expirement and the other shows you how to solve a problem. Those are very different reasons. Even though these graphs have some simalarities and differences, they are both very useful
ReplyDeleteI agree with matts mom.
ReplyDeleteTwo differences and similarities between the two processes is one similarity is the information is the same and one difference is the second process is more complex with its wording. For the similarity the information is the same because they both have ask a question only with different wording. the difference between the two i the second is more complex. As an example the first step for the first process was ask a question, and the second process was question the need or problem to identify. these processes are very much alike but they are also very different.
ReplyDeleteThe two diagrams are different and similar in ways. The difference between the two diagrams is that Design Process is trying to identifi the problem and fix it. The scientific method is about making an observation. Also the Design Process is inventing something. One similarity is that they both require backround research. The second similarty they both have to test there expirement or soulition. Those are the differences and similarites.
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