Select Design Tasks
Listen to interviews with curriculum designers about the
ideas behind their curricula, watch footage of eight design
tasks in action in the classroom and at teacher workshops,
and get help from the Chooser Chart in selecting one of
these tasks for use in your classes. Click on links in
the purple navigator bar (above) or the titles below to
find out more:
- Design
Curricula
Hear interviews with five authors of curricula found
in DITC and the unique approaches they used in their
standards-driven materials.
- Model
Parachute
Students use coffee filters, string, tape and weights
to create a parachute that falls the slowest with
a given load. (Learning
By Design™ 3-7 days)
- Cardboard
Chair Students
investigate paper as a building material and, working
in groups, scale up model designs to create a full-scale
cardboard chair that can hold a 70-kg (150-pound)
person sitting and leaning back on it. (Developed
by Ed Goldman of Brooklyn Tech HS 5-7 weeks)
- Shopping
Bag Students
collect and sort a wide variety of shopping bags,
test them to see which designs are strong and where
they fail when loaded, and then redesign them into
their own shopping bag. (Stuff
That Works! 2-5 days)
- Paper
Bridge
Students use the minimum of material from a single
sheet of paper to make the lightest "paper bridge"
that holds 1 or 3 nearly full liter-water bottles
for 10 seconds. (Challenges
In Physical Science 3-5 days)
- Crane
Watch teachers build a motorized crane that lifts
as many nails in a cup as possible. (Design
It! 3-5 days)
- Electromagnet
With simple materials, students attempt to build the
strongest electromagnet, measured by lifting the greatest
number of nails placed in a plastic cup. (Challenges
In Physical Science 3-5 days)
- Baking
Soda Students
combine vinegar and baking soda as a replacement for
yeast to make bread rise, with no residue or aftertaste.
(Challenges
In Physical Science 4-7 days)
- Machines
That Help
Students investigate simple machines and design a
device that enables a user to lift a heavy weight
with the small force transmitted through a single
strand of cotton thread. (LBD™
2-4 weeks)
- Other
Tasks
This section describes other design activities that
you may want to use but for which DITC has a few or
no movies, including Pop-Up Books, Nuffield's Advertising
Float task, and LBD's Vehicles in Motion.
- Chooser
Chart
DITC'S Activity Chooser Chart helps you compare and
select design tasks found in DITC according to criteria
like authenticity, duration, open-endedness and building
skills.
|
|
|
