Engineering Design Process for kids adds so many valuable lessons to your content at school. Having systems that work in place is ESSENTIAL for a successful STEM or STEAM classroom. The Engineering Design Process is a process, but it’s a system that will NEVER let you down.
What am I saying here? A really successful STEM or STEAM classroom is one that can allow students to drive instruction. You can’t just let them run a muck…. (a muck, a muck, a muck) That would be a quote from a favorite movie of mine. Squirrel moments happen to me sometimes!
Back to the Engineering Design Process
Alright, alright… so The Engineering Design Process. You want your students to know this circular process backwards and forwards. What happens during each step? How should they be thinking? What should they be doing? Why should they be doing this? If you are ready to really get a strong STEM or STEAM system going… check out the Ultimate Guide for making this happen!
They need to understand how to move through the process and move into a new step of the process. They also need to understand the benefit of each step and how it matters to their creations. So… let’s break it down. Before we do, let me say that I consider the Engineering Design Process for kids one of the foundations and fundamentals for using STEM or STEAM in the classroom. Take a peek at the rest!
I like to keep it simple and use a 5 step Engineering Design Process for K-5 students, but steps can be more detailed and elaborate. I have seen this process stretched out into 8 or 9 steps, but it still follows that 5 step process. What are they for heaven’s sake?
Ask: The First Step in the Engineering Design Process
During the Ask phase of the Engineering Design Process, your students become aware of a single driving question that they will begin to problem solve. Quite often, I have to keep reminding students of this question. It’s their North Star throughout the entire process! Keep looking towards that North Star!
An example might be: How can we stop erosion around the basketball court on the playground? Being specific and including details is very important, but most important… The question is open-ended.
Many times before the next phase can truly be successful, students will possibly need to research or be given some background information. At this point, it depends on your students. It’s completely ok to teach content here. If your students know how to research, and I mean that in the most honest way possible, you can allow them to research their content. However, students are not born knowing how to research. This needs to be modeled!
Imagine: The Second Step
After some background information has been gathered, students can now begin “imagining” or brainstorming their ideas for problem solving that “north star” question. I like to model my own thought process here for students to get them started. I also make them repeat after me, “every idea counts!” It’s important for students to know that no matter how “off the wall” or silly an idea may seem… write it down!
It’s really important for students to dig deep and come up with tons of ideas. Talking and collaborating with other students is so helpful! Don’t forget that!
Plan: A Solid Plan Will Always Come Out on Top!
Now that students have ideas on how to solve their problem, it might be good to pause and reiterate the North Star Driving Question. Does their idea really seem to be a solution that will try to solve their problem? If so…. It’s time to create a plan. A plan needs to have explanations, images, materials lists, steps…. As many details as possible are helpful during this step. Some students may begin and decide to go back to imagine because their plan isn’t coming together. Further research may need to be done.
Create: The Crowd Goes Wild!
If the plan seems to be solid… really solid… it’s time to build or create whatever the plan describes. It could be that it’s a plan for an event to solve a problem. At the creation point, students would need to put the plan into action to host their event. They may be building a structure. They could be creating a poster for a campaign. Who knows how students will solve their problem! Teachers: Let them try to solve the problem in the way they think will work… even if you don’t.
Failure is so important. Yes… I said failure! Why do we need to fail? We need to fail to know that things can always be improved or made better which brings us to the almost last step….. Some helpful tips for solid plans include: pictures with labels, materials lists, and for sure the steps to creation.
Improve: The Step of the Engineering Design Process for Kids that is sooooo hard
Alright… I know your time is precious. I do. Students may absolutely need to improve their solution they created for real reasons, but sometimes just talking about it is okay! Make sure when using the Engineering Design Process for kids… you don’t leave this step out. By the way… have you noticed at all how similar the Engineering Design Process for kids is to the writing process…. makes me go hmmmm…..
Sharing the Engineering Design Process for Kids… After the Work is Done
When it’s time to share, some teachers include this as a step in the Engineering Design Process for kids, but others do not. Whatever you do… let your students share their work some how. The best way for them to share their work is beyond your classroom or the four walls of the school building. With all the Google Meeting, Zooming, and other wonderful ways we connect now… it’s just too easy not to do this!
Resources are a teachers BEST friend! Explore the I Heart STEAM website, and you will find them everywhere. If you want a point to start… Grab the Ultimate Guide mentioned earlier. This Engineering Design Process planner linked here is great for digital documentation! Finally, I highly recommend students documenting in a STEAM journal, but if you must use a printable…. grab this one for FREE!
