Lemelson-MIT Workshops for Teachers
The Lemelson-MIT Program, located within the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is hosting three hands-on professional development workshops this summer aimed at helping middle and high school teachers nurture their students’ creativity and inventive mindsets.
Midwest | July 11-13, 2018 at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisc.
West Coast | July 25-27, 2018 at California Polytechnic State University in Pomona, Calif.
East Coast | August 1-3, 2018 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.
Filed under: For Teachers, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, K-12 Outreach Programs, Special Features | Comments Off on Lemelson-MIT Workshops for Teachers
Tags: creativity, Engineering Design, invention, Lemelson-MIT, professional development for teachers, Programs for Teachers, Resources for Teachers, STEM education, Summer Programs (Teachers)
When “The Victors” peals from the 55-bell carillon high inside the University of Michigan’s Burton Tower, many students below can hum the famous fight song as they stroll. One group, though, also understands the engineering and skilled labor behind the resonant tones, having sculpted and poured metal to make carillon bells that achieve a particular sound in a course called Shaping the Sound of Bronze. 
Students in grades 6 to 9 learn about biomedical engineering and the human sensory system, then follow the engineering design process to create sensory-integration toys for youngsters with developmental disabilities.
In this engineering design challenge about building in hurricane-prone regions, students learn that a solid base helps stabilize a structure by constructing, testing, and redesigning a tower that can support a tennis ball at least 18 inches off the ground while withstanding the wind from a fan.
Failure – and learning from it – is integral to engineering design but shunned in most classrooms. ASEE PreK-12 engineering authorities Elizabeth A. Parry and Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue examined how elementary teachers’ perspective and use of “fail words” can change to support inquiry and learning.
Discover how to use the engineering design process to enrich your students’ math and science learning in an immersive, week-long course presented by the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation and endorsed by ASEE. Register by June 15, 2017 for sessions starting June 26 (River Falls, WI) and July 22 (Philadelphia, PA).
Students in grades 5-9 learn about urban planning as they assess the environmental health of their community, taking a walk around their neighborhood. They construct a map that identifies both positive and negative features and then recommend improvements.
Teams of middle school students use the engineering design process to design, build, and test a pair of wearable platform or high-heeled shoes, taking into consideration the stress and strain on the wearer’s foot. They activity concludes with a “walk-off” to test the shoe designs and discuss the design process.
In this activity, teams of middle school students express their creativity while learning the fundamentals of engineering design, sustainability, and the basic physics of forces and motion by building a vehicle out of recycled trash that is capable of transporting liquid over rough terrain with as little spillage as possible.
