The
Smith-Northampton Summer School offered a course for middle school
students entitled: “If You Build It – They Will
Come: What Do Engineers Do?”
The
course description reads: “What keeps a bridge suspended over
deep and wide chasms? How do skyscrapers stay up in wind and even
earthquakes? Who decides what structures should be made of? Why
have things sometimes gone wrong with what we’ve built? This
class is about designing the things of our world. If you’ve
ever been curious about what engineers do, here’s a chance
to find out. We will use all sorts of material to explore and build
all sorts of objects including bridges, buildings, kites, and cars.
Meet some of the new engineers from Smith College. Join us for the
excitement.”
The
goals of the course were to introduce students to the field of engineering,
to generate interest in engineering among a diverse group of middle
school students, and to engage students in the sort of reasoning
and problem solving used by engineers. We used the course to help
us develop and pilot instructional units aimed at meeting these
goals. The course was a considerable success in enrollment and in
the enthusiasm and, we believe, motivation generated. We plan to
offer the course again and will refine and add to the existing units.
In order to get a clearer idea about the impact of the course, we
hope to be able to follow the students enrolled in the course into
their next year in school.
This
is to be used as a supplementary list of suggested activities to
incorporate concepts of engineering into a first grade unit on insects.
The activities are divided into modules which are meant to be independent
of one another. The teacher may choose one part of a module to incorporate
into an insect unit or may use all four as they are. Broadly speaking,
this unit will allow students to explore the world of insects through
collection, observation, and activities which highlight the connections
of insects to the field of engineering.
