As with many hands-on activities, the enthusiastic work students do on their projects can all be for naught when students run out of time before completing their best work. The Teaching Standard D from the National Science Education Standards (p. 43) refers to a teacher' managing learning environments stresses the importance of teachers structuring students' time when they do extended investigations. The same applies to design.

MOVIE 1 shows Ed Goldman providing in different ways help to students with time management, and get them organized when working in the ill-defined arena of design. Such scaffolding involves reminders of deadlines, class calendars that show tasks that need to be completed and when, daily reports on progress that students complete, and the assignment of specific design roles among team members. Time is a key constraint that designers, more than laboratory scientists, must deal with and conform to every day. Watch the ways Goldman choreographs students' fabrication and building so that the maximum gets done with the minimum of student grief.

In the middle of MOVIE 1, Goldman and science teacher Bridget give time-saving tips to students on storing their designs, managing materials. Even sharing construction tips can save time, allowing students to focus more on the designs behind their designs, rather than spending lots of time figuring out how to fabricate with tape, cut cardboard, or make two lines parallel to one another. At MOVIE 1's end, you hear from Harvard's Phil Sadler make a much broader point about saving time. His large-scale research showed that students who do in-depth learning and extended investigations in high school have greater success in their freshman college physics courses. In the long run, doing activities like designing can make a difference in what habits students take with them when they finish their K-12 education in schools.