Design Process
What it is:
The engineering and design process is a series of steps that engineers follow to come up with a solution to a problem. Steps include: Ask, Imagine, Design, Create and Improve.
Why it matters:
This introduces students as problem solvers who must create answers to real world questions.
The engineering and design process is a series of steps that engineers follow to come up with a solution to a problem. Steps include: Ask, Imagine, Design, Create and Improve.
Why it matters:
This introduces students as problem solvers who must create answers to real world questions.
Engineering Design Process Worksheets
Every engineering design challenge requires the engineering design process to find a solution. These worksheets walk students through the design process by providing space for recording data and consideration of each step. Your students will be solving problems like real engineers with these worksheets. Click here.
ENGINEERING IN YOUR CLASSROOM Some Basic Guidelines
✅Design Process Graphic Organizers
✅Engineering Design Process Rubric Gr. 5- 12
ENGINEERING IN YOUR CLASSROOM Some Basic Guidelines
✅Design Process Graphic Organizers
✅Engineering Design Process Rubric Gr. 5- 12
One of the biggest obstacles to learning is the fear of making mistakes. To avoid humiliation, students will avoid challenging learning tasks."
Sousa and Tomlinson, Differentiation and the Brain, p 25
"The older students get, the less likely they are to ask questions in class."
Hattie & Yates: Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn
"Avoiding failure is typically a stronger motivation than potential success"John Greene
- Scientific Method vs. Engineering Design Process: Which is used in STEM learning?
- EDP worksheets to use for any engineering design challenge
- Essential Question STEMS for Inquiry Based Learning - These allow you to look at Driving Question STEMS that might help you write that driving question. I like this site because it offers some Blended Learning Possibilities as you think of those STEMS that just might help that question or challenge.
- How to Write Effective Driving Questions for Project-Based Learning
- Essential Question STEMS for Inquiry Based Learning - These allow you to look at Driving Question STEMS that might help you write that driving question. The site offers some Blended Learning Possibilities as you think of those STEMS that just might help that question or challenge.
- Driving Questions in Project-Based Learning
Tool for Building Simulation Validating How Something Works
SageModeler is an intuitive modeling tool being developed at The Concord Consortium and the CREATE for STEM Institute at Michigan State University for middle school and high school students to build their own models and validate their model design using real-world data. Using the SageModeler tool, students can take their current ideas about how something works and design a runnable simulation without needing to write equations or do traditional coding. By making it possible to map their ideas about a phenomenon to a working computational simulation, students can test, share, evaluate, and revise their model (and their understanding of the phenomenon). SageModeler makes possible three different types of modeling, from basic diagramming of the structure of a system to creation of a static equilibriummodel or a dynamic time-based model. A step-by-step tutorial is available in English and Spanish.
SageModeler is an intuitive modeling tool being developed at The Concord Consortium and the CREATE for STEM Institute at Michigan State University for middle school and high school students to build their own models and validate their model design using real-world data. Using the SageModeler tool, students can take their current ideas about how something works and design a runnable simulation without needing to write equations or do traditional coding. By making it possible to map their ideas about a phenomenon to a working computational simulation, students can test, share, evaluate, and revise their model (and their understanding of the phenomenon). SageModeler makes possible three different types of modeling, from basic diagramming of the structure of a system to creation of a static equilibriummodel or a dynamic time-based model. A step-by-step tutorial is available in English and Spanish.
Portals
All Students Deserve to Fail: STEM Challenges and Growth Mindset
videos
Design Thinking Toolkit - includes challenge lessons, videos and slide shows
Kids Think Design—an interactive website about how to see the world like a designer
Challenged-Based Science Tool Kit
✅ Sharpen.Design Teachers that are looking for STEM/STEAM project ideas on the fly head on over to https://sharpen.design/stem, choose a category, and click on the “new challenge” button. The automated system will grab random options to put together a challenge. This tool could be great for choosing random group projects, a weekly enrichment program, or planning ahead for future projects. The simplicity of clicking a single button takes a creative burden off of teachers.
Challenges for Building Design Thinking and Problem-Solving SkillsStudents, teachers, and mentors come together to design solutions for real-world challenges at DiscoverDesign, an online platform supported by the Chicago Architecture Center. On the platform, students can practice the design process, demonstrate their design skills, develop a portfolio of work, earn badges, and get feedback. They can work on projects in their classroom or on their own. Insight from DiscoverDesign’s network of peers, teachers, and design professionals helps to motivate students to practice design thinking. Teachers can use and remix design challenges
Design Curriculum Well organized, concise
Create a Sport Design Challenge introduce the LAUNCH process to students. It includes a free design thinking project, an eBook, and a suite of assessments.
Tools list for projects
Design Squad Nation | Grades 3-8
Use the resources in this collection to help students gain a stronger understanding of the design process, and a better sense for the role of engineering in everyday life. View Collection
Plus: Developed by the Boston Museum of Science’s Engineering is Elementary program, the Engineering Design Process is a series of steps for developing a new product or system. Engineers use this process again and again to create a new design or improve an existing one. Educators are encouraged to explain this five-step process to students, as well as display it in their classrooms. A poster describing the five steps in the Engineering Design Process may be downloaded, at no charge, from The Engineering Place website.Web: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/theengineeringplace/educators/#process
Engineering a Board Game Gr. 2 - 8 Our classrooms should be places where students are engaged in learning. So why not combine the fun of games with an Engineering Design challenge? Think of using a board game design project as a way to: (1) introduce the Engineering Design Process into any classroom and subject, (2) engage students in a creative and collaborative project that involves planning, spatial reasoning, and technical writing, and (3) provide an opportunity to apply and work with concepts from any topic. $5
Snowy Winter STEM gr. 1-6 When it's time to go back to school, I like to ease into the New Year with snowy STEM Challenges! These focus on lots of math standards related to 3D solids, area, perimeter, volume, all things triangles and more! The best part is how the kids don't realize how much work you're having them do! Check out winter STEM here!!
Design-based Learning for Environmental Stewardship
NEXT.cc is an eco web that develops ethical imagination and environmental stewardship through activities and links to cultural heritage institutions. The site introduces what design is, what design does, and why design is important. It offers activities across nine scales—nano, pattern, object, space, architecture, neighborhood, urban, region, and world. NEXT.cc’s journeys introduce activities online, in the classroom, in the community, and globally. The journeys and activities are supported with links to museums, institutions, and contemporary practices. Place-based design activities that address the five goals of environmental education: Awareness, Knowledge, Attitudes and Environmental Ethics, Citizen Action Skills, and Citizen Action Experiences.
The Stanford Design School – Get ready for some innovative lessons that include the design process. You will find an abundance of material and resources to bring innovation to your STEAM program.
Design Education in all Disciplines The Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum offers several resources on how to integrate design-thinking connections into the K–12 classroom. Features more than 400 design-based lessons written by educators from all disciplines. In addition to the K–12 lessons, the website offers best practices, videos, and other design resources that allow educators to be fully equipped to implement design education across any subject. Three sample lessons illustrate how design thinking can be integrated into mathematics, science, and English language arts learning: “Using Design to Solve Math Problems in the Real World,” “Connecting the Scientific Method to Design,” and “Learning Paragraph Structure Through Design.
How To Smile – This is an amazing collecting of some of the best educational materials, learning activities, tools, and services. They are all designed especially for those who teach school-aged kids in activity-based settings. This site is sponsored by a group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world. This is a great place to Make STEM happen!
NBC Learn Science of Innovation – collection of videos that can fit into a lesson based on all types of design and technology principals.
Design Fail? Four Key Questions That Help Kids Troubleshoot
36 Resources for STEM Project Based Learning - If you’re a teacher or looking for ideas for STEM project-based learning activities, then you’ve come to the right place.
The STEM Laboratory - These 50+ STEM projects are sure to keep little scientists engaged, learning and well-prepared for their STEM-filled future.
Spark!Lab – Discover the Spark!Lab Process for design which includes, Identify a problem or need (Think It), Conduct Research (Explore It), Make sketches (Sketch It) Build prototypes (Create It), Test the invention (Try It), Refine the invention (Tweak It), Market the invention (Sell It). You will want to explore the links to these these resources and the amazing Spark Lab Free Design Book.
Tinker Ball – This is a simulation that allows students to see there are multiple iterations and possibilities when designing.
PBS Learning Media Engineering and Technology – Discover resources and projects that connect students to engineering design practices and future careers.
videos
Design Thinking Toolkit - includes challenge lessons, videos and slide shows
Kids Think Design—an interactive website about how to see the world like a designer
Challenged-Based Science Tool Kit
- Design Process: A guide to developing your own Challenge Based Science Learning
- Templates: Tools to develop units
- Unit Library: Teacher-created units ready for modification to your context
- Deeper Learning Rubrics: Tools to evaluate your instruction and student learning alignment to the Deeper Learning competencies
- Research Report: A summary of the research on Deeper Learning in challenge based science classrooms
✅ Sharpen.Design Teachers that are looking for STEM/STEAM project ideas on the fly head on over to https://sharpen.design/stem, choose a category, and click on the “new challenge” button. The automated system will grab random options to put together a challenge. This tool could be great for choosing random group projects, a weekly enrichment program, or planning ahead for future projects. The simplicity of clicking a single button takes a creative burden off of teachers.
Challenges for Building Design Thinking and Problem-Solving SkillsStudents, teachers, and mentors come together to design solutions for real-world challenges at DiscoverDesign, an online platform supported by the Chicago Architecture Center. On the platform, students can practice the design process, demonstrate their design skills, develop a portfolio of work, earn badges, and get feedback. They can work on projects in their classroom or on their own. Insight from DiscoverDesign’s network of peers, teachers, and design professionals helps to motivate students to practice design thinking. Teachers can use and remix design challenges
Design Curriculum Well organized, concise
Create a Sport Design Challenge introduce the LAUNCH process to students. It includes a free design thinking project, an eBook, and a suite of assessments.
Tools list for projects
Design Squad Nation | Grades 3-8
Use the resources in this collection to help students gain a stronger understanding of the design process, and a better sense for the role of engineering in everyday life. View Collection
Plus: Developed by the Boston Museum of Science’s Engineering is Elementary program, the Engineering Design Process is a series of steps for developing a new product or system. Engineers use this process again and again to create a new design or improve an existing one. Educators are encouraged to explain this five-step process to students, as well as display it in their classrooms. A poster describing the five steps in the Engineering Design Process may be downloaded, at no charge, from The Engineering Place website.Web: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/theengineeringplace/educators/#process
Engineering a Board Game Gr. 2 - 8 Our classrooms should be places where students are engaged in learning. So why not combine the fun of games with an Engineering Design challenge? Think of using a board game design project as a way to: (1) introduce the Engineering Design Process into any classroom and subject, (2) engage students in a creative and collaborative project that involves planning, spatial reasoning, and technical writing, and (3) provide an opportunity to apply and work with concepts from any topic. $5
Snowy Winter STEM gr. 1-6 When it's time to go back to school, I like to ease into the New Year with snowy STEM Challenges! These focus on lots of math standards related to 3D solids, area, perimeter, volume, all things triangles and more! The best part is how the kids don't realize how much work you're having them do! Check out winter STEM here!!
Design-based Learning for Environmental Stewardship
NEXT.cc is an eco web that develops ethical imagination and environmental stewardship through activities and links to cultural heritage institutions. The site introduces what design is, what design does, and why design is important. It offers activities across nine scales—nano, pattern, object, space, architecture, neighborhood, urban, region, and world. NEXT.cc’s journeys introduce activities online, in the classroom, in the community, and globally. The journeys and activities are supported with links to museums, institutions, and contemporary practices. Place-based design activities that address the five goals of environmental education: Awareness, Knowledge, Attitudes and Environmental Ethics, Citizen Action Skills, and Citizen Action Experiences.
The Stanford Design School – Get ready for some innovative lessons that include the design process. You will find an abundance of material and resources to bring innovation to your STEAM program.
Design Education in all Disciplines The Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum offers several resources on how to integrate design-thinking connections into the K–12 classroom. Features more than 400 design-based lessons written by educators from all disciplines. In addition to the K–12 lessons, the website offers best practices, videos, and other design resources that allow educators to be fully equipped to implement design education across any subject. Three sample lessons illustrate how design thinking can be integrated into mathematics, science, and English language arts learning: “Using Design to Solve Math Problems in the Real World,” “Connecting the Scientific Method to Design,” and “Learning Paragraph Structure Through Design.
How To Smile – This is an amazing collecting of some of the best educational materials, learning activities, tools, and services. They are all designed especially for those who teach school-aged kids in activity-based settings. This site is sponsored by a group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world. This is a great place to Make STEM happen!
NBC Learn Science of Innovation – collection of videos that can fit into a lesson based on all types of design and technology principals.
Design Fail? Four Key Questions That Help Kids Troubleshoot
36 Resources for STEM Project Based Learning - If you’re a teacher or looking for ideas for STEM project-based learning activities, then you’ve come to the right place.
The STEM Laboratory - These 50+ STEM projects are sure to keep little scientists engaged, learning and well-prepared for their STEM-filled future.
Spark!Lab – Discover the Spark!Lab Process for design which includes, Identify a problem or need (Think It), Conduct Research (Explore It), Make sketches (Sketch It) Build prototypes (Create It), Test the invention (Try It), Refine the invention (Tweak It), Market the invention (Sell It). You will want to explore the links to these these resources and the amazing Spark Lab Free Design Book.
Tinker Ball – This is a simulation that allows students to see there are multiple iterations and possibilities when designing.
PBS Learning Media Engineering and Technology – Discover resources and projects that connect students to engineering design practices and future careers.
Three stages of Introducing STEAM Challenges
- Stage 1 includes activities like tower challenges where students learn how to work together. These activities are often called icebreakers.
- Stage 2 is where you introduce the engineering design process and add math and science, then use technology to solve a problem.
- Stage 3 consists of longer, more complex challenges with a research component. In this stage, students solve a more open-ended problem and there is typically a final project that they present.
- Find out more about the 3 Stages of STEM in our blog post here.
- Stage 1 Tower Challenges (and other icebreaker ideas)
- Stage 2 example activity: Straw Rockets (for K-2nd grade)(for 4th-10th grade)
- Stage 3 example activity: Launch a Weather Balloon
- Stage 3 example activity: Design a Mars Colony
Real World Projects
Coastal Erosion in this activity, students in grades 3 to 8 learn about coastal erosion and the role of engineers in protecting shorelines by applying the engineering design process to devise ways to mitigate erosion that take public concerns into account – and use both structures and policies.
Interactives Fostering Authentic Scientific ExplorationNOVA Labs is a free digital platform from PBS, where teen “citizen scientists” can actively participate in the scientific process and take part in real-world investigations. From predicting solar storms and constructing renewable energy systems to tracking cloud movement and designing RNA molecules, NOVA Labs participants visualize, analyze, and share the same data that scientists use. Each Lab is unique, focusing on a different area of active research. Yet all of the Labs illustrate key concepts with engaging and informative videos and guide participants as they answer scientific questions or design solutions to current problems.
Water Pipelines The backstory of this challenge is one of the reasons to appreciate it. Students research how remote villages in Panama use gravity-fed water pipe systems. Then they must design a pipe that will work (pretending they work for a charitable organization that is building pipelines.) They must build a pipeline that is 100 cm long that will transport water from a holding tank to a lower tank- with a minimum of leakage. photo example
Design Thinking (Lesson 1 of 2): The Five Chair Challenge
Climate-solutions-oriented curriculum, assessment tools, and other learning resources. Climate solutions storylines, digital games, carbon footprint calculators and virtual reality simulators are increasing in number, often come with teacher guides, and can be a powerful in-road for student engagement in climate science learning and solutions.
Five-step Engineering Design Process developed by the Museum of Science in Boston to guide most STEM lessons and activities
Free STEM Mini Journals Use these to help guide students through the STEM process and also
Every engineering design challenge requires the engineering design process to find a solution. These worksheets walk students through the design process by providing space for recording data and consideration of each step. Your students will be solving problems like real engineers with these worksheets. Click here.
PBS Design Squad: From balloon jousting to wind energy, download engineering design challenges and worksheets. Check out this build spinner that gives you challenges based on available supplies.
Makers Empire: A list of engineering design challenges related to the coronavirus such as designing a cough catcher or fever detector.
Microsoft Library or Authentic STEM activities
Experiments and activities connected to real-world problems and situations. Microsoft education resources
Community Garden for Your School - Students explore issues of appropriate plants and water conservation
Level Up Village partners students from developing nations with students in the US to learn about design and engineering, and in the process, they learn about global collaboration.
Hacking STEM gr. 6 - 12 What it is: Microsoft and NASA collaborated and created 8 unique hands-on STEM activities based on the International Space Station! The activities involve Microsoft's data streamer, which you can use by downloading a free add-on to your Excel program. One of the activities is to design a boot to protect an astronaut’s feet when living in microgravity on the ISS!
Why you need it: This resource is awesome for middle and high school science teachers wanting to do hands-on engineering design challenges and science experiments, while integrating real-time data collection and analysis. Microsoft provides everything from step-by-step instructions, the Excel workbook template for the data collection, and microcontroller code. I would recommend these activities for advanced middle school and high school student looking for a challenging STEM lesson with real-world connections.
Find it here for FREE.
Design and build a bird feeder that can be refilled easily and can dispense bird seeds on its own. gr. 3 - 5 You can use plastic bottles, plastic plates, cardboard, wooden clothespins, and string to engineer this bird feeder. You can modify the task too and include any other materials you would like students to use.
Odyssey of the Mind – This international educational program provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems.
Engineering a Board Game Gr. 2 - 8 Our classrooms should be places where students are engaged in learning. So why not combine the fun of games with an Engineering Design challenge? Think of using a board game design project as a way to: (1) introduce the Engineering Design Process into any classroom and subject, (2) engage students in a creative and collaborative project that involves planning, spatial reasoning, and technical writing, and (3) provide an opportunity to apply and work with concepts from any topic. $5
Global Problem Solvers is designed to introduce middle-to-high-school students to social innovation with a particular focus on how they can use technology to create effective solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems. The series of videos, engaging characters, and teacher resources provide students with a basic set of problem-solving tools for turning their visions for change into a practicable reality. So you get a handy little tool perfect for starting conversations around civic engagement and turning those conversations into actual plans.
Designed STEM, created by Defined Learning, offers online project-based lessons for preK–12 students. Videos show the application of concepts in a company or industry. Students then engage in activities that allow them to apply their knowledge to the real-world scenarios. Defined STEM’s work reflects some of the ideas of the Understanding by Design Framework. A free trial is available.
World’s Largest Lesson. This website is dedicated to helping educators teach with the U.N.’s Global Goals. Use the site to inspire educators to lead meaningful change through the use of innovative teaching practices and digital tools.
Biomimicry ( K - 12) Focuses on making STEM learning more interactive. Have your students take learning outside to highlight the NGSS cross-cutting concepts of patterns, form and function, scale, proportion, energy and matter, and systems. This module features a collection of multiple grade level activities and resources that can be used as a stand-alone unit or as background research for the sustainable design challenges featured in Module 3 (available in mid-May). Biomimicry never fails to engage students of all ages and it can provide a great “hook” for learning about adaptations and ecosystems.
Module 1 (Engineering Lemonade) had students examine the designed world in their homes, focusing on how we engineer solutions to our problems. Module 2 takes them outside to seek inspiration from Nature. Module 3 will ask your students to put it all together to design sustainable solutions to the challenges we face on this planet that we all call home.
Mosa Mack provides students with a variety of short animated mysteries that they have to solve using knowledge gleaned from videos they watch. Mosa Mack adopts an inquiry-based approach to science learning and provides content that is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards. Mosa Mack arranges its science content into units each of which is comprised of three lessons that ‘progress upwards on Blooms Taxonomy and the the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) chart.’ The units include:
- Lesson 3 The Engineer: An engineering challenge that allows students to apply what they’ve learned to solve real world scenarios.’
q provides students with a variety of short animated mysteries that they have to solve using knowledge gleaned from videos they watch. Mosa Mack adopts an inquiry-based approach to science learning and provides content that is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards. Mosa Mack arranges its science content into units each of which is comprised of three lessons that ‘progress upwards on Blooms Taxonomy and the the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) chart.’ The units include:
- Lesson 1 The Solve: An animated science mystery and vocabulary manipulative
- Lesson 2 The Make: A hands-on lab
- Lesson 3 The Engineer: An engineering challenge that allows students to apply what they’ve learned to solve real world scenarios.’
We Share Solar empowers students to be global changemakers. By combining solar energy and engineering education with real-world applicability, trained teachers cultivate students’ interests in STEM subjects and inspire them to meet an immediate need in the developing world. Middle school, high school, and college teachers learn to teach the organization’s extensive curriculum during two-day workshops.
Design Process Poster Design
Blown Away A STEM Engineering Design Challenge Hazardous weather, Area, surface area.
Lessons on Design Thinking The Tech of Innovation helps teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make engaging and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers. The site includes single-session lessons of less than an hour, such as “Balloon Astronaut” (grades 2–8) and “Circle of Pong” (grades 3–12); single-session lessons of one to two hours, such as “Fire Brigade” (grades 3–6) and “Pump It Up” (grades 4–6), as well as multisession lessons, such as “Bobsled Blitz” (grades 3–12) and “Farming in Ancient Mesopotamia” (grades 6–8). 6 Middle School Real World Challenges
Real-World STEM Problems
More Real-World STEM Problems
Biodomes Engineering Design Project: Lessons 2-6
DigCitUtah. This site offers 30 inspiring stories of kids and teens using technology for social good. These examples might inspire you and your students to take up a cause with the help of technology and a global network of other justice-oriented digital citizens.
6 Middle School Real World Challenges Make solar energy economical, Manage the nitrogen cycle, Provide Access to Clean Water
Engineer the tools of scientific discovery, Restore and improve urban infrastructure, Engineer Better Medicines
Oil Spill: Connecting STEM activities to real world problems Make solar energy economical.
How to create real-world STEM lessons Having students solve real-world problems builds their empathy along with their science, technology, engineering and math skills, former middle-grades science teacher Anne Jolly writes. She outlines criteria teachers can use for developing such lessons and offers a list of online resources
Save Our Shores In this activity, students in grades 3 to 8 learn about coastal erosion and the role of engineers in protecting shorelines by applying the engineering design process to devise ways to mitigate erosion that take public concerns into account – and use both structures and policies.
DiscoverE Real-world challenges like surviving a storm surge, cleaning our rivers, devise ruberband rovers, endangered species, and more
Design Challenge Learning? It’s a combination of project-based learning, design thinking and the engineering design process that develops the innovator’s mindset through iteration.
The lessons on this page, developed over the years by educators at The Tech, will help teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make fun and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers.
Rocket and Space Challenges - last three challenges are design challenges
Design-based Learning for Environmental Stewardship
NEXT.cc is an eco web that develops ethical imagination and environmental stewardship through activities and links to cultural heritage institutions. The site introduces what design is, what design does, and why design is important. It offers activities across nine scales—nano, pattern, object, space, architecture, neighborhood, urban, region, and world. NEXT.cc’s journeys introduce activities online, in the classroom, in the community, and globally. The journeys and activities are supported with links to museums, institutions, and contemporary practices. Place-based design activities that address the five goals of environmental education: Awareness, Knowledge, Attitudes and Environmental Ethics, Citizen Action Skills, and Citizen Action Experiences.
Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student